


Order of the Sith Lords: Rule of Two

by lordtrayus



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Multi, Ruusaan Reformation (Star Wars), Sith Lords (Star Wars), Sith Rule of Two (Star Wars), Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy Era, The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 69,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29559135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordtrayus/pseuds/lordtrayus
Summary: Darth Plagueis said that there were thirty Sith Lords following from the Battle of Ruusan and the creation of the Rule of Two, up to the Battle of Naboo. These are the histories of these Dark Lords of the Sith, who's millennia of scheming has allowed for the Sith to destroy the Republic and eradicate the Jedi
Relationships: Darth Bane & Darth Zannah, Darth Maul & Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Dooku | Darth Tyranus & Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask | Darth Plagueis & Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Sheev Palpatine & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. The Birth-The Cleansing Feud

**Author's Note:**

> Ever since the Darth Plagueis novel came out and revealed that there was thirty Sith Lords between Bane and Sidious, I often wondered what each of them was, and who, so I decided to write the stories of these various Sith. The history of the Sith begins 1000 BBY, with the Birth of the Rule of Two and the leadership of Darth Bane  
> It ends in 4 ABY with the Battle of Endor, though as we know there are still those dedicated to the way of the Sith
> 
> Let me know what you think!

Order of the Sith Lords

** Birth of the Rule of Two **

** Darth Bane **

Species: Human male

Birth Name: Dessel

Reign: 1000 BBY-980 BBY

Info: Born the son of a miner on Apatros, Bane fled his homeworld, joining the army of the Brotherhood of Darkness during the New Sith Wars. Recruited to the Sith academy on Korriban, he became disenchanted with the Sith of the era, realising the dark side had been spread thin between too many pretenders. Striking out and gaining secret information from the holocron of Darth Revan, Bane vowed to remake the Sith, and decided to create the Rule of Two: two Sith, one to embody power, the other to crave it, a master, and an apprentice. Returning to the Brotherhood, he manipulated their destruction by goading Shere Kaan into using the thought bomb, which annihilated all Sith save for himself.  
Finding the girl, Zannah, in the ruins of the battle, he made her his apprentice, and began her training. Lasting many years, Bane trained Zannah and even survived an encounter with several Jedi on Tython. Eventually, fearing Zannah was not cut out to be the master, he tried to find the holocron of Darth Andeddu in order to attain immortality, which gave Zannah the justification to kill her master. Confronting her on Ambria, Zannah overpowered him through Sith sorcery, and took his new prospective apprentice as her own, fulfilling his legacy which would last a millennia.

** Darth Zannah **

Species: Human female

Birth Name: Zannah or Rain  
Reign: 1000 BBY-980 BBY, 980 BBY-957 BBY  
Info: Formerly the child known as Rain, Zannah was recruited by the Jedi, who were desperate for soldiers to send against Kaan and his forces on Ruusan. Split from her cousin Darovit, she was saved by the native Bouncers, but when a Jedi killed her friend Laa by accident, Rain lost herself to the dark side, assuming her true name, and then submitting herself to apprenticeship under Darth Bane. Growing into a beautiful but deadly Sith sorceress, wielding a double bladed lightsaber, Zannah helped her master, carrying out his intentions and will across the galaxy, including helping him create a holocron and allowing him to survive an encounter with five Jedi. Finally prepared to take the throne, she chose the Dark Jedi Set Harth as an apprentice only for him to abandon her. Confronting her master, she defeated him with her sorcery and took the assassin, Cognus, as her apprentice.

Training Cognus for many years, they continued to advance the aims of the Sith, with Zannah indoctrinating her apprentice to the Rule of Two, assuring Cognus’ almost zealot like loyalty to the cause. Building a vast network of information, power and supplies, the two Sith soon learned that Set Harth had raised the ire of the Jedi Council. Acting quickly, the two Sith joined the hunt, aiming to kill him before the Jedi found him, lest he expose the survival of the Sith. Facing her would be apprentice, Zannah killed Harth (who escaped through essence transfer into a clone body) and the Jedi abandoned the chase, believing the threat passed, and the Sith remained hidden. However, Cognus, saw that the time was ripe, and confronted her master. Declaring her master unfit to rule as her actions in trying to recruit Harth had unintentionally endangered the Rule of Two, Cognus confronted her master and engaged her in a vicious lightsaber duel on the planet Talasea, with lightning flashing in the air, and Cognus, using the Mind Shard technique that she had long ago perfected, broke her master’s concentration which made Zannah’s own spell to summon down the elements backfire, resulting in Zannah being blasted apart in a lightning strike that scarred the planet surface.

** The Cleansing Feud **

** Darth Cognus **

Species: Iktotchi female

Birth Name: Unknown, went by ‘The Huntress’  
Reign: 980 BBY-957 BBY, 957 BBY-912 BBY  
Info: Once a hired assassin, Bane offered her a new future different from the life of a hired killer, and with his death became Zannah’s apprentice. Zannah indoctrinated her into the Sith, instilling a zealot like loyalty to the Rule of Two, while perfecting her mental capabilities and precognition, while also training her in the use of Niman.

Using her visions to further the ends of the Sith, Cognus received a vision that her master’s former would be apprentice, Set Harth, had attracted the ire of the Jedi Council. Fearing his capture would lead to the exposure of the Sith, Zannah and her apprentice confronted Harth and when Zannah killed him, though his consciousness fled, the Jedi departed Talasea. Cognus perceived her time had come, and challenged her master. Unable to best her master’s saber skill and Sith sorcery, she relied on her mind, and her precognition, and during her master’s final stand as she conjured a Force storm, Cognus used her mastery over the Mind Shard to break Zannah’s concentration and Zannah was immolated in her own lightning strike.

Now the sole Sith in the galaxy, Cognus realised that she now had to finish a job both Bane and Zanah didn’t: cleaning up the mess of the New Sith Wars. While they had taken care to erase all knowledge of their presence, leftovers of the war, such as mercenaries and war droids, still filled the galaxy, and Cognus spent the next two years, orchestrating schemes that removed all relics, such as droid factories or mercenary brigades who could tie back to the Sith. At the same time, she used her visions to foresee events which could be used to her advantage, using her alias as a financial advisor to remove politicians and allowing lesser skilled or more corrupt take their place, and also allowed her to hire bounty hunters to assassinate significant targets that would have a small destabilising effect on the Republic and the Jedi.

After two years, Cognus began to seek out an apprentice. She eventually came upon Millennial, who was already a well-established businessman and political player. Further enamoured by his ability to foresee the future like herself, despite his obvious age and stubbornness, Cognus took him as her apprentice. He questioned everything he was taught, and his successful life had led him to become accustomed to comfort and that might makes right, which frustrated his master, who struggled on regardless, using strict discipline to try and break him from his mould.

In this time, she dealt with many latent threats that had risen from the Brotherhood of Darkness, and fifty years after Ruusan, she only had two last obstacles, a droid factory that had manufactured Kaan’s HK droids and a mercenary group known as the Wraiths. After a final clash with his master on the nature of the Rule of Two, Millennial was contacted by the Wraiths, and when their Dark Jedi leadership pledged themselves to him, he confronted Cognus, using his own abilities to cloud her precognition, and cast her down.

Surviving, Cognus activated the last of the droids and gifted them to the Wraiths, and hired the military arm of the Wraiths to hunt Millennial down, eager for revenge, using the Wraiths split to her advantage. Knowing how Millennial’s foresight worked, she also contacted the Jedi while in disguise, informing them that the last shattered remnant of the Brotherhood was making a move. All three forces converged on Millennial’s castle on Christophsis, occupying his vision. Cognus then entered the fray herself, feeding on the three way battle and eventually arrived in Millennial’s chambers where he and his legion were confronted by the Jedi. Killing former Jedi Lord Teepo and Jedi Master Lirondo before Millennial could talk, she slaughtered most of his supporters before engaging her former apprentice. Believing he had the upper hand, he realised too late she had deceived him, and she struck, overpowering him and using her assassin’s knife to gouge out his third eye, blinding him to the future and slashed his throat open. She then had the droids self destruct, destroying the entire Wraith army as she made her escape, and cleansing the last Sith relics from the galaxy.

Realising she had made the same error as her master, Cognus now sought out a new apprentice, and moved her operations to Corellia. The son of one of her former victims was now a teenager, and recognised her for what she was. The heir to a powerful and rich company, she used his hatred for his overseers who only used him to line their own pockets to convince him to join her, using her murder of his parents to keep him quiet. She took them down, a perverse loyalty to her growing as she assassinated them all, and he himself struck down his uncle and took over his company as sole CEO. He then pledged himself to Cognus, who named him Darth Heritor, making him sacrifice his lover to become a Sith Lord.

Using Heritor’s company, the two Sith built up vast power networks and funds, her precognition making it one of the most profitable in the galaxy, and feeding resentment on Corellia, Ciutric and elsewhere, fraying the edges of the Republic. Cognus spent her years training Heritor, becoming a twisted and warped mother-son like relationship, her indulging him at points but still using strict discipline and harsh, violent, brutal lessons to make him as dedicated to the Rule of Two as herself

Eventually, Heritor confronted her, and having learned how to shade her vision which she relied on all the more as she went on, he used his previously unknown mastery of Jar’Kai to surprise his master, and eventually bested her in saber combat.

****

** Darth Millennial **

Species: Mutant male

Birth Name: Erdwin Mosst  
Reign: 955 BBY-950 BBY  
Info: Born with a third eye, Millennial was rejected by his mother. His father, who suffered a disability and was crippled, however, killed the mother and raised his son alone, instilling him with a sense of stubbornness and entitlement. At the age of five, Millennial began to predict the future, a talent which proved more useful as he grew older. Upon leaving school, Millennial used his foresight to get himself a job at a local brokering firm, which he quickly raised through the ranks of, eventually becoming a director. On the word of his father he ran for public office, becoming as local councillor, and after that he euthanised his father to prevent him from holding him back.

In his early forties when he was discovered by Cognus, he had spent his life clawing his way up the ranks and had become accustomed to comfort, and also idolised Kaan and his teachings. Stubbornly believing that might made right, when Cognus took him as an apprentice, he questioned everything, never truly believing in the Rule of Two, seeing it as short sighted and weakening, though that was mainly the allure of power and wealth. Constantly exasperating his master, he had many clashes with her, to the point of violence on several occasions. Following a final clash, Cognus threatened him with death and he left, coming across the mercenary group his master was trying to destroy, the Wraiths. The Dark Jedi leaders pledged their allegiance, splitting the group, with the larger faction remaining loyal but with all the Force users now supporting Millennial. Recruiting them, he led the attack on his master’s estate on Esseles, surprising her and casting her down.

Cognus however survived. Activating a war droid army, hiring the regular Wraiths, and involving the Jedi, Cognus distracted her former apprentice to the extent where she could catch him unawares, and slaughtered two Jedi, the leader of the Wraith soldiers, and most of Millennial’s supporters. She then fought him herself, and circumvented his foresight, using her assassins knife to pluck out his third eye, blinding him to the future. She then sliced open his throat and threw him from a window. Saved by his few remaining supporters, they fled to Dromund Kaas and nursed him back to health where they set up the Prophets of the Dark Side, the dark side miasma hiding his existence from his master, though his foresight wasn’t completely lost it was severely maimed.

****

** Darth Heritor **

Species: Human male  
Birth Name: Nayte Antyion  
Reign: 949 BBY-912 BBY, 912 BBY-882 BBY  
Info: The son of two of Cognus’ former victims during her time as a killer for hire, he was the heir to a multi million credit company. When his parents were killed, the board of directors assumed control of his company, and he became little more than a rich ceremonial figurehead. Growing up in wealth, he had no power and resented the fact that he couldn’t control his own company, and was terrorised by dreams of the assassin who he had seen murder his parents. With his company stuck in a rut and losing money while the board got richer, he longed for a way to avenge himself, and discover the ones who had ordered his parents deaths, but lacked the means to do so.

This changed when one of his company’s board of directors, who had previously warned the boy that they ruled the company and that he was there to give them legitimacy, was appointed to the Order of the Canted Circle. Cognus, in her persona as a financial advisor, was invited to the party in the director’s honour. Heeding the call of the Force, she happened upon her future apprentice, getting intimate with a boy his own age, which was the threat the board held over his head by threatening to cut him off if it came out that he was homosexual. Encountering the boy, he recognised her for what she was, the woman who had killed his parents. Tempting him with power, wealth and the prospect of emancipation, while hanging a threat of dying like his parents above his head, Cognus tempted him and promised that she would return his company to his sole control, which he cautiously agreed to, in exchange for his allegiance and the power and wealth of his company. Cognus then began to assassinate the board of directors, killing the first as he was initiated into the order. Interested, the youth began speaking more with Cognus, learning from her and coming to her point of view. As the murders grew in number, he began to assume more of a leadership role, which he was virtually built for and began to invite Cognus into the company’s meetings, getting her involved at the highest levels to the disdain of the board. In the end, only his uncle remained, and he entered Cognus’ rooms with assassin droids, his private security dragging his nephew and telling him that she was the one who had killed his parents. Cognus then pointed out that the only way he could know that was if he’d hired her to begin with, and with her encouragement, the youth used a Sith war sword to decapitate his uncle and his guards, while Cognus destroyed the assassin droids. Pleased with his work, Cognus asked him if he wished to become her apprentice, and he knelt, becoming Darth Heritor.

As Cognus apprentice, Cognus indulged him, becoming a sort of maternal figure to him which he had sorely lacked. However she was a strict disciplinarian, ingraining him with the belief in the Rule of Two, twisting and warping his morals and sense of judgement, while stoking his hatred of her and of the Jedi for their role in his parents deaths. Using violent and often brutal training sessions, while also indulging him and training him in the art of seduction and using a carrot and stick approach, his greatest test came when she ordered him to kill his lover. Originally horrified, Cognus feared her apprentice would fail her when he bedded his lover…and was then delighted as he killed him in the throes of passion. Confident she had chosen well, she began the practice of integrating the Sith at the highest galactic levels, attending functions with her apprentice that met with people such as the Supreme Chancellor himself. Using his company’s wealth and influence, along with her own precognition, they built a vast network of funds, power and spies which would one day contribute to the ability of the Sith to destroy the Jedi. Training her apprentice in Shien, she also made sure to cultivate his ability to perceive events around him, making his awareness his greatest asset. Under her instruction, he manufactured the fall of several high profile businessmen, senators and even the minister of finance for the Republic itself, while his own company excelled and allowed Cognus to manoeuvre less than honest people in to assume the positions after them. He also manufactured the Rendili-Kuat industrial conflict, in which acts of terrorism and sabotage, both industrial and state, severely impacted the ability of the Republic to maintain its fleet or expand it, leaving the outer worlds resentful and open to piracy, forcing them for the first time to rely overly on the Jedi.

Aware that any confrontation with his master would be seen coming, he needed an ace in the hole. After several years as her apprentice, Heritor, heir to the Sith, one day saw that his time had come, and entered her chambers, knowing her advancing age made her rely on foresight more than she ought to. Engaging his master in a ferocious duel, Heritor duelled her to a standstill, he then revealed his second blade, shocking her as she had had no idea of his mastery of Jar’Kai and killed her with a blow to the heart, his master delighted and telling him he was the true heir of the Sith and of the Rule of Two as she died, and he vowed to continue the Sith legacy in her image, and while he felt great satisfaction for killing the murderer of his parents, he also regretted his action as he had grown to love her as a substitute mother figure.

Now alone, Heritor continued to build the wealth and information network of the Sith. Enjoying political intrigue, he created a holocron on how best to use politics and manipulations to the benefit of the Sith, and was a master of Machiavellian scheming. He stoked tensions between the Republic and the Mandalorians, sponsoring the Mandalorians violent attempts to attract the Republic’s attention, creating a tense pseudo border conflict. He also provoked tensions with the recently settled Senex sectors, and advised the Chancellor into using a heavy handed approach to the situation, resulting in greater tensions and mistrust of the Jedi.

While continuing his plotting, in his attempts to destabilise the election of a new president on Devaron whom the chancellor himself had declared support for, he came across one of her bodyguards. When the candidate was defeated, she was fed to the quarra while her guards were auctioned off for slavery. Buying the bodyguard, Heritor was an abusive master, pushing the Devaronian to his limits, and one day left his guard down, his slave taking advantage and trying to kill him. Pleased, Heritor revealed his identity as a Sith Lord, and offered his slave the chance to become his apprentice and one day kill the man who had done this to him, and his slave was freed and became his apprentice, Darth Inquiris. The two further pursued the aims of the Sith, Heritor constantly stoking his apprentices hatred and anger, acting much more brutally than his own master ever had. Upon the completion of a scheme that saw the Gran settle Malastare and enslave the Dugs, a furious Inquiris acted and engaged his master with his double bladed lightsaber, and used his savage mastery of Juyo to overpower Heritor’s own skills and maim him before killing him by driving his horns into his hated master’s skull


	2. Forging the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The third era of the Rule of Two, known as Forging the Future, when all the Sith worked towards the common goal set out by Darth Bane, building resources and developing schemes to undermine the Republic and the Jedi

Order of the Sith Lords

** Forging the Future **

** Darth Inquiris **

Species: Devaronian male

Birth Name: Oikaan Targrakh  
Reign: 896 BBY-882 BBY, 882 BBY- 847 BBY

  
Info: Having served as a bodyguard to the prospective presidential candidate on Devaron, Heritor came across him during one of his schemes, which resulted in the candidate losing the election and being fed to the quarra. Her supporters were then sold into slavery, and sensing the high sensitivity of her former bodyguard and his rage, Heritor bought his future apprentice. For the first two years, he treated him brutally, demeaning him, humiliating him and stripping away all that he was in order to fuel his hatred. After a particularly savage beating and humiliation, the slave tried to kill his master, pleasing Heritor, who then offered him the chance to one day kill him by becoming his apprentice.

Now having a more equal relationship, the two Sith continued their plans, with Heritors wealth and influence making it ideal for his latest plot. Utilising the Intergalactic Banking Clan’s plans to expand to Aargau, they exposed the corruption of the banks on Sestria, allowing the IBC to proceed unimpeded while the rest of the galaxy turned to Sestria. However, as Heritor prepared to leave to advance the plan he became aware that a holocron had been discovered by architects. Leaving to acquire the device, which belonged to Darth Desolous and would be disastrous if allowed to fall into Jedi hands, he instead sent his apprentice in his place. Inquiris skill for persuasion and malevolent spying, along with his juggernaut like ability to get to the truth, allowed him to be appointed as an independent liaison on Sestria, and he eventually discovered a whole web of corruption, reaching to the highest echelons of the Republic. To his great delight, he also discovered that the bank on Sestria was a significant contributor to the Jedi Order. Liaising with his master, they exposed many corrupt senators, businessmen, medical chiefs, judicials and others. It then became clear that someone even higher was involved, and the two Sith discovered that the Vice Chair, who was greatly enamoured with the Jedi Order, had been using illicitly garnered funds of the bank to support the Jedi. Pouncing with this, the two Sith entered the Senate chamber and denounced the vice chair in front of the whole senate and galaxy, hiding in plain sight. With the vice chair removed under corruption and racketeering charges, the chancellor himself asked them to investigate the Jedi donations.

The investigation tested Inquiris to the limits, hiding his malevolent aura from powerful Jedi such as Grand Master Fae Coven and the Nautolan Master of the Order Doe Abanet, with his master pulling the strings, using his power and influence to frame the Jedi, even though in theory they were technically blameless. Inquiris found the information his master wanted him to find, but after some investigation discovered that Master Abanet had been complicit, however unknowingly, in taking donations from the vice chair. By simply accepting them, under the cloud of the scandal created by the vice chair, and failure to report it to the rest of the Council, she had brought suspicion on herself, which was evidence presented to the chancellor. While Abanet stood down, it created a cloud of distrust over the Jedi and politicians in general, leading people to question whether or not they could be trusted.

With this success, Inquiris realised he no longer needed his master, who had now turned his attention to Malastare. Realising that his master was now using legalised slavery to torment sentients like he had been, Inquiris went berserk upon the completion of the scheme, confronting his master with Juyo and his double bladed saber and disarmed him before shattering his masters skull by impaling it with his horns.

The murder of his master brought about an epiphany in Inquiris, and he realised that such things could be used to further erode the Republic. Utilising the Hutts as an example, he hijacked the Gran Protectorate’s movement to liken them to slave traders, creating greater tensions between the outer and mid rims as several pressure groups began to resent legalised slavery. Casting doubt on the senate and Jedi’s ability to resolve the crisis, he, in his guise as an inquisitor (studies of which occupied much of his time), provoked further tensions, leading to a collapse of several trade deals and treaties, and also abandoned the world of Ubrikkia which had been considering leaving the Hutts to join the Republic, forcing them to realign with the Hutts.

Having shown the Republic to be weak and brought a cloud of suspicion over the senate and the Jedi, Inquiris continued to act quietly, furthering aims, and after his stellar performance toppling the vice chair and the Master of the Order, began to ally the Sith with various societies, such as the Canted Circle, Black Sun, the Morgukai and others, allowing Inquiris to collect people who may be of later use to the Sith. Senatorial groups banded together, and he like his master flitted through political circles, gaining friends and allies, and attaining the loyalties of several players who he felt could be useful.

Moving away from the core following the election of the zealous new supreme chancellor who had vowed to stamp out corruption, he relocated to Taris. When there, he found himself in the undercity and realised that the rich players of the Republic indulging themselves while the people suffer could also be used to his advantage. While on the planet, he once more encountered Fae Coven, the Grand Master, who disliked him due to his role in Abanet’s downfall. He tagged along with her to visit a prospective apprentice (she was too polite to refuse) and saw her as she found two Force sensitive Zeltrons who were stricken with poverty, along with their mother. Coven informed the mother of her childrens affinity for the Force, and offered to take them away, and the mother agreed. However, the eldest was too old to begin training and was left behind. For many months, Inquiris watched the girl, growing in anger and resentment, trying to get off Taris, while her mother spent every hard earned penny trying to discover what had happened to her youngest daughter. The mother then died leaving the girl destitute, and Inquiris approached her under the guise of a customer, and only at home did he reveal himself to her. Encouraging her hatred of the Jedi, he offered to make her his apprentice, and bring about the downfall of Coven, who the girl blamed for the death of her mother as well as her sister vanishing, and she agreed.

Upon the completion of that plan, and a brush with exposure, during their hour of triumph, Mesmer poisoned her master as he savoured his victory, ending his reign and becoming the master herself.

****

** Darth Mesmer **

Species: Zeltron female

Birth Name: Vel Zytane  
Reign: 878 BBY-872 BBY, 872 BBY-840 BBY

  
Info: Rescued from poverty by Inquiris, Mesmer hated the Jedi and Fae Coven, the Grand Master, in particular, blaming her for her poverty, her mother’s death, and after she discovered it, her sister’s apparent death as well (in reality a ruse by her master to enrage her). Her master taught her how to refine her control over people’s emotions, taught her hatred, made her strong, and trained her in the use of Shii-Cho, and also allowing her to indulge in Sith sorcery.

Quickly giving herself to the dark side, Inquiris refused to allow her to take a public persona, ordering her to keep her true self as her mask. Using her history as a weapon, she began to speak out against the Jedi, claiming how they stole her sister from her and doomed her and her mother on Taris, further tarnishing the Jedi. Seeking out other relatives of Jedi who had been taken for training, she started a wave of protest across the galaxy as more and more people spoke out about the Jedi splitting apart families, and getting what they wanted while leaving others to rot, their power growing over the years as those with grievances with the Jedi rallied to her banner. On top of the corruption scandal, this led the chancellor to investigate the Jedi himself, which only made the Jedi pull away from the Republic, raising more hackles and alienating the two groups from the other. Inquiris then reached out to Mesmer’s sister, and she came along with her master, who happened to be Master Abanet. Arriving to try and talk her sister down and end the storm of controversy, Mesmer was furious with her master for deceiving her. However, Abanet was shocked to learn that Mesmer was in league with the same man who had brought about her downfall, and it was then that the two realised the truth. While Mesmer engaged her sister, who tried to redeem her, Inquiris fought Abanet. Realising jealousy, spite and anger had fuelled the younger Sith, Abanet ordered her apprentice to back away, only for her apprentice to insist that her sister wouldn’t harm her. Mesmer then proved her wrong as in a fit of jealous, spiteful rage she murdered her sister, allowing Inquiris to disarm Abanet and impale her through the eyes on his horns. With the Jedi’s attempt to settle the dispute seemingly tragically cut short by fate, as it was made to look like the two of them had been killed by swoop gangs, a senate petition began to gain traction, which would severely impede the Jedi’s ability to recruit. Meeting with Mesmer, Coven asked if she would recant if she stood down, and Mesmer agreed. Combined with increasing pressure from the chancellor himself, who didn’t want to be associated with such scandal, Coven finally stood down as Grand Master of the Order, and Mesmer’s supporters heralded this as victory, allowing them to disband. Toasting their victory, Mesmer then poisoned her master. The Jedi were severely tarnished, their two most powerful and highest ranking members were gone, and soon dead (Coven died not long after her retirement of natural causes), recruitment was down, donations were down and their reputations and ability to enforce the Republics wishes had been severely hampered, as even the chancellor was reluctant to turn to them for some time, and the senate had a growing body of opinion that saw them as vigilantes. Satisfied with this, Mesmer ended her short apprenticeship and became the master, and spent the next several years perfecting her form, and her sorcery, retiring from public life.

Pursuing her sorcery, she spent the next several years focusing on the basics, hiring intermediaries to tend to the affairs of the Sith and keep their fortune and networks strong, and she would act on information. Rather she was more interested in attaining knowledge and power, seeking out Sith relics and artefacts, even relocating to the Empress Teta system to allow for this. Growing in the power of the dark side, she was content to allow the Republic to trundle on under its own steam, only intervening to maximise the problems it would cause for the government and the hated Jedi. However, in her attempts to garner more Sith artefacts she had enraged several dark side organisations, and the Prophets of the Dark Side tried to strike at her, and nearly assassinated her, her sorcery being all that saved her.

Realising the cultists had gotten out of control, she faded into obscurity in order to plan her revenge. Seeking refuge with Black Sun, who she used to track down one of the assassins who had tried to kill her, a bounty hunter brought in a Falleen male. She killed the bounty hunter and paid off the bounty, sensing the Force blazing within him and took him as her apprentice. In gratitude, he was soon devoted to his master and the cause, and with the help of her shadowy connections, she and her new apprentice, who had rediscovered the teachings of Sith alchemy, unleashed themselves upon those who dared challenge the Sith, shattering the splinter cults and setting them back centuries in their own power plays, cleaning house and securing the legacy of the Sith, accumulating more objects and relics of the dark side to increase their power.

Remaining hidden, she and her apprentice quietly furthered the aims of the Sith, planning and intervening when needed, focusing more on attaining dominance over the dark side. After several years of alchemical experiments, her apprentice then sacrificed her in a Sith ritual on Corbos, feeding her to a beast he had created, and he then assumed mastery of the Sith.

****

** Darth Nolun **

Species: Falleen male

Birth Name: Zarin Karmin  
Reign: 852 BBY-840 BBY, 840 BBY-770 BBY

  
Info: Having been saved from a life on the run by Darth Mesmer, Nolun quickly became devoted to the Sith and to his master, who found him to be the perfect apprentice, due to his loyalty, eagerness to learn and above all his inability to be influenced by her emotions. Trained in the use of Makashi, he focused his attention on Sith alchemy, perfecting many dark creatures and experiments, torturing and tormenting hapless test subjects in his quest for greater understanding. While his master kept half an eye on the events unfolding in the Republic, Nolun took a greater interest, and was eager to move away from the laissez-faire approach and take a more active role. Disagreeing with Mesmer on how involved the Sith should be, he lured his master to oversee an experiment on Corbos, where he sacrificed her in a ritual to increase his own dark side power and hence became the master.

Now alone, Nolun turned his attention to Alderaan. The world was in the grip of political turmoil, as a deeply unpopular king had hired Ubese warriors to put down an ever growing protest movement against his reign. The leader escaped however, and with the new evidence, began to sound out forces, which would only lead to civil war. Nolun began to use his identity as an arms dealer, smuggling weapons onto Alderaan and sounding out other planets as support, knowing that the Jedi, still tarnished from the previous scandal, combined with the presence of Ubese warriors, could not be used to resolve the conflict. With one of the most prominent worlds in the Republic about to erupt in civil war, Nolun used a second identity to persuade the increasingly mad king to hire more Ubese warriors, landing more on the planet and dividing the populace even more than before, while in his identity as arms dealer he advised the freedom fighter, persuading him that a coup was his only option to save his world. The Republic was slow to action, and the mediators they sent were killed by various noble houses who Nolun was bankrolling, inciting the population as the mad king began to become increasingly erratic, acting out when people questioned his decisions. Things came to a head when he had his Ubese warriors open fire on a crowd, which resulted in a full scale riot which destroyed half the city. Nolun watched in delight as civil war erupted across Alderaan, with the king, the army and the Ubese on one side, and the freedom fighters, volunteer corps and outside sponsored troops on the other. The chancellor himself tried to negotiate an end to the conflict to no avail, and Alderaan looked to be doomed to years of civil war. However, a diminutive Jedi by the name of Yoda entered the palace, and persuaded the king to surrender to the freedom fighters, ending the civil war before it got out of hand, and the Ubese were chased off world. Nolun was furious that he had been foiled, and retreated to the shadows as he could no longer use Alderaan as a lightning rod to destabilise the Republic.

With Alderaan averted, Nolun returned to his alchemy and began to consider the future of the Sith, contemplating seeking out an apprentice. However, that was put on hold. A terrorist organisation based from Serenno blamed the ever increasing divide between the core and the outer rim had managed to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor, who had opted not to use the Jedi for protection. The Republic was in chaos and the deeply unpopular vice chancellor was hardly qualified to rule. Nolun used this to his advantage, using his arms dealer persona to entice the militant faction in the senate further into uproar, and several began placing orders for warships, arguing that the Republic needed such protection. By the same token, he assisted in the terrorists escape from justice, arming them with weapons that ripped apart the Republic forces set out after them, further increasing demands for a more powerful security force for the Republic. The vice chancellor then did the worst: he begged the Jedi for help after a cruiser failed to bring down the terrorists, and the Jedi obliged. Nolun was delighted. The Jedi had entered the fray, and even if they succeeded, he had still managed to profit, the chancellor was dead, the unpopular vice chancellor’s reforms heightened the divide between core and rim, it showed how weak the Republic was, and also proved that they could not function without the Jedi as a crutch. Calling in the Jedi prompted a vote of no confidence leaving the Republic in further turmoil with no leader, the terrorists on the run and the Republic depending on the Jedi. The Jedi team caught up with the terrorists on a moon of Serenno, and despite the advanced weaponry, the terrorists were all killed, though they did kill six of the fifteen Jedi who had been sent to catch them. A senator from Chandrilia was voted chancellor, and calmed down the militant backlash, and made it clear that while there would be more security spending, they would not militarise again, and that the Jedi would be more than sufficient. Nolun preyed on this, and while the reaction alleviated, he was able to sell weapons to various parties to allow them to counter the Jedi, which would slowly weaken the Republic’s dependency upon them

Having capitalised on this crisis, Nolun sought out an apprentice, aware that he was beginning to age. To this end, he searched everywhere for an apprentice, to no avail. It wasn’t until Nolun provoked a border skirmish between the Wookiees and Trandoshans (supplying the Wookiees with advanced weaponry) that he found his apprentice. Discovering a human mechanic on Kashyyyk, he had him fix the landing gear of his ship which had been damaged by a micrometeor on entry. However a Trandoshan death gang had tracked him and attempted to kill Nolun as he tried to leave the planet. Easily defeating the band, he was then saved from a sniper by the young man, who used unbridled and untrained Force powers to send the Trandoshan to his doom. Impressed, Nolun recruited him as his apprentice, and named him Darth Axes. Training him for the better part of ten years, Nolun continued to force up weaponry prices, antagonise conflicts and back the militants and the pacifists when it suited him, and was always willing to antagonise the Jedi through proxy. His apprentice then used one of the weapons he had given a Ubese blood feud group to kill Jedi to kill his master, the weapon ripping Nolun in half and allowing Axes to rise to mastery.

****

** Darth Axes **

Species: Human male

Birth Name: Raltarr Brogues  
Reign: 779 BBY-770 BBY, 770 BBY-752 BBY

  
Info: Having been recruited by Nolun during a border skirmish that he had provoked, Axes saved his life with untrained Force powers. Taking him as an apprentice, Nolun financed Axes further education, and through his sponsorship he became a ship engineer in Sienar Fleet Systems, researching and creating new ships, and slowly advancing their weaponry, making them just on the side of legally armed. Combining this with his master’s arms company, the two Sith constantly frayed the fragile peace of the Republic, while funding the militants and watching as the Jedi struggled to maintain peace in an increasingly hostile galaxy. While Nolun preached patience, and proclaimed that it would still be a century or so before the Sith could strike, Axes disagreed, and began to plan to remove his master. When his master bankrolled the remains of the Ubese group that he had used on Alderaan and had them foolishly engage the Jedi in a pitched battle, Axes murdered his master with one of the weapons he had supplied to the Ubese and buried him on the battlefield with the remains of the Ubese, while capitalising upon the negative backlash of the Jedi heavyhandedness in defeating the Ubese splinter group.

With the Republic fraying at the edges and the Jedi accused of overzealousness, the heavy handed actions of the Republic were counting against it. Into this climate, using his ability to foresee events, Axes perceived the apprentice that he would need. A child born to the noble houses of Anaxes, who would rally the ancient worlds and others who were becoming more and more stifled under the increasingly decadent and pacifist Republic, Axes perceived his time had come. Foreseeing this apprentice, this child would become his apprentice, and would be his weapon for destroying the Republic, and as a result, the Jedi.

To this end, he began to arm various factions, using his networks and his masters arms companies to fund dissent, and sponsoring a group known as the Sons of War. Under his shadowy guise, these Sons of War would provoke the Judicial forces into a war they could not win, and as a result the people would rally behind his chosen apprentice, seeing him as a military leader and return the Republic to an armed state, which would then give way to a military coup against the chancellor and the Jedi. Funding the terror group, demands rose for greater protection, as senatorial ships and judicial forces were attacked by these Sons of War, and the Jedi struggled to calm tensions, as they too became targets, and Axes continued to fund this state of affairs, realising he would soon have the apprentice he needed and left unchecked, the crisis would grow until his apprentice was ready.

Axes headed to Serenno only to discover he had been outpaced. A Jedi scout had found the child he had intended to be his apprentice and had whisked them off to the temple. Furious, Axes entire plan was derailed, and he then realised he could not bring the end of the Republic. In anger he hired the Bounty Hunter’s Guild to assassinate the leading members of the Sons of War, ending their threat, and tying them to the noble house of Serenno which had upset his plans, having all them killed as well, along with the Jedi who had taken his would be apprentice, and the would be apprentice himself. Now, having wasted years, the Republic was growing in strength again and worst of all he had no apprentice.

Following events with half an eye he began to scour the galaxy for a suitable apprentice. It was only when he was invited as a guest to a tournament hosted by Sienar that he found his apprentice. A Tunroth cage fighter was one of the best fighters, and he watched her progression with great interest, feeling the sheer power of her anger and the raw untamed power of the dark side coming off her. Battlescarred and hardened, the Tunroth defeated all her opponents, growing in strength, and to Axes great interest, she was siphoning the life of her opponents and using it herself. However, the host had been betting on the Barabel, and when he died at the Tunroth’s hands, he taunted her, claiming she would never be free and released a rancor to kill her. Axes then left the box and descended to the floor, and watched as she ripped the rancor’s jaw in two, and then gave in to her fury, releasing a Force shockwave which killed everyone who had been watching the match bar the Sith, who diffused the blast. Axes then offered to show her her true power, and curious, the Tunroth followed him from the planet, allowing the building to collapse

Training Darth Taral in the ways of the Sith marauder, he made her a consummate warrior, training her in a violent variation of Juyo and Djem So, melded with Jar’Kai. Taral’s rage was her greatest weapon and her greatest flaw, as when she got angry she lost all control of herself and her powers, resulting in outbursts, which he frequently tried to torture out of her with lightning. Stoking her hatred and rage, he was always careful not to enrage her too much, and refused to teach her Dun Moch lest it backfire. During a simple training exercise, he criticised her, and it seemed like she was having an off day, and every criticism made her angrier. Eventually losing patience with her, he called her useless, which set off a chain reaction of anger. Trying to calm her, her unbridled power began to destroy their headquarters on Rendilli, and he lit his saber, realising his use of Makashi would have to be quick to take her down. He sped at her, and she then seized him by the neck, and with a flash of terror, he realised too late that she had tricked him into thinking she was in a rage and hed put himself at her mercy. With that, Taral ripped the head off her master and assumed mastery of the Sith.

****

** Darth Taral **

Species: Tunroth female

Birth Name: Xerxa  
Reign: 757 BBY-752 BBY, 752 BBY-651 BBY

  
Info: One of the longest reigning Sith Lords, Taral began as a pit fighter, who, having been captured and pressed into service for the entertainment of others, was enraged to be denied her freedom having completed the tournament. Slaughtering the rancor sent to kill her, her instinctive use of the Force destroyed all the spectators and the building, save for Darth Axes, who took her as his apprentice after his last fell through.

Having no public identity, Taral gave herself totally to the Sith, an eager student, who excelled at combat training, and learned a violent and brutal saber form. Trained as a Sith marauder, she was known only as Axes bodyguard on Rendilli, standing in silence as he talked about ship designs and militarising ships and Starfighters with various luminaries, none of them aware that it was thanks to her that they had been allowed to move up the scale after she killed all the spectators at the fete. Training with her master for years, she became a Sith warrior, though he was careful to avoid enraging her too much as her rages were uncontrollable. Realising this, Taral saw how she could rid herself of her master. Thinking she had learned everything she could from Axes, she appeared to be goaded into a murderous rage and her master tried to stop her, and only when he got close did he realise her deception and she ripped his head off, becoming the new master.

Taral began the tradition of visiting a less advanced world and giving oneself totally to the dark side. In this regard, she returned home to her own planet, which was fairly insular. Giving herself totally to the dark side, she slaughtered many beasts of her homeworld with traditional weapons, becoming a venerated hunter. Believing the Sith had overplayed their hand too many times recently, she spent much of her time on her own planet, honing her powers in the Force and her patience. After becoming honoured in the Halls of Predation, Taral left her planet, and returned to the wider galaxy, preparing to once more advance the ends of the Sith.

To this end, Taral relocated to Sarapin, offering herself as a hunter to deal with the Vaapads which had spiralled out of control and were interfering with the energy collection on the planet. Slaughtering many vaapads, she wasn’t paid, but was instead offered shares in Republic Energy Solutions. Pleased with this, Taral became a competent businesswoman, and became a high level director in a few short years, and due to her position she had access to a lot of vital information and the avenues of power. Despite this, the vaapads continued to return, and curious, Taral followed them to their origin and found some ancient Jedi ruins. There she encountered Yoda, who was trying to quell the beasts. Hiding her presence, she met the Master and the two ventured into the ruins, discovering the wounded vaapad superior. Yoda healed the creature, ending the attacks of the smaller creatures and the two returned to Mount Corvast, and when Yoda departed, she made the first error: she recorded that Jedi techniques for controlling anger were useful to an extent, as Yoda had taught her to quell her inner anger and make it more productive, which she reasoned could be useful for other primal Sith such as herself.

Taral used her position to cultivate information and weapons to be used at a later time, and her role as one of the directors was quite useful as it brought her into contact with various luminaries of the Republic, including senators, businessmen, military personnel and Jedi. It was at a party hosted by the Republic energy secretary that she encountered the admiral of the judicial forces, who informed her of the growing tension between Mandalore and the Republic. Returning to Sarapin, Taral immersed herself in the dark side, allowing the raw primal energy of the planet to strengthen her in the dark side to perceive her next action. The Mandalorians had had centuries to recover from the New Sith Wars and were becoming a technological powerhouse and building military supplies, an action which alarmed the Republic. She knew that all that would be required to set off the brewing conflict would be one single spark, but she had other plans she meant to advance, and pondered whether it was wise to move on them or not.

The Mandalorians were beginning to tax trade routes near their sector, and were disregarding the Republic military laws as they further developed their military, along with forcing surrounding systems into agreements they didn’t necessarily want. Refusing to join the Republic, Mandalore professed its independence and tensions were high as it seemed to be trying to create its own independent government. Taral was hesitant, but followed the dictates of the Force and simply reduced the price of Sarapins energy, making energy more affordable. The Mandalorians left their space in one of their cruisers to get some energy supplies. Taral then tipped off the admiralty to their actions, and believing the Mandalorians had violated Republic law by using one of their high powered cruisers as a transport and having it enter Republic space, the admiralty sent a ship to intercept. Taral then watched from afar as the Republic flagship, eager for a fight, opened fire on the peaceful Mandalorian ship, which provoked it to retaliate, destroying the Republic ship and killing the admiral, which as Taral predicted led to the spark she needed. In retaliation for which the Republic declared an act of war, the Mandalorian Excision took place, crippling Mandalore and its surrounding systems with disarmament and planetary bombardment which rendered part of the planets uninhabitable, and imposing a garrison on the Mandalorians. The Republic and the Jedi were criticised for their handling of the situation, and accusations of brutality and war crimes were levelled against the Republic, and independent minded worlds such as Corellia protested the actions of the Republic, claiming it was acting like the Sith by annihilating all opposition to it, which brought many people out in sympathy to the Mandalorians who disapproved of the Republic’s violent tactics.

Taral was pleased with her success, and was pleased with the result, knowing that the Excision had given her even more to draw upon to further weaken the Republic. As a Marauder, she had little use or need for mind tricks or the such, but her will was nearly insurmountable. Immersing herself in the Force, with the raw power of Sarapin behind her, she began to use her will to shape events, which resulted in the Republic Energy Crisis. Pulling at the eddies of the Force, she shaped events to suit her and advanced her plans, and made her first contribution to the grand plan.

The energy crisis began when an accident destroyed the spaceport, preventing the export of resources and energy supplies to the core worlds. Energy began to back up on Sarapin, and production was to resume as fast as possible, however it was then that Taral revealed that many planets were not paying all their dues, and the board, silently influenced by Taral, voted to withhold energy until all payments had been made. With many worlds, including Coruscant, now entering their second week without power, people were beginning to panic and demanded the Republic take action. Taral however had used the knowledge of her predecessors and the defence grid made Sarapin unassailable, giving them a stranglehold over the core worlds. Having previously bought the illegally armed ships of her masters design, Taral created a small defence fleet, which was heavily armed enough to dissuade any attempts at trying to storm the planet by force. While planets were now paying their dues, it had now gone too far, and under Taral’s shadowy leadership, Sarapin refused to distribute much needed energy and decided to stay the course until the Republic admitted its fault in the matter, paid all its dues, and stopped treating Sarapin like an outpost as opposed to a member. Riots, dissent and panic were spreading across the core, while the outer rim grew stronger off the profits due to the chaos the Republic was in. Pirates and smugglers, backed by the Hutts, were emboldened, selling energy from the outer rim to the core at vastly inflated prices, crippling economies and widening the gap between rich and poor, as the rich made sure they used the reserves for their wants as opposed to the peoples needs. A blockade was now surrounding Sarapin to try and force the issue, and the chancellor was determined to settle the crisis himself, but the fallout of the Mandalorian Excision and accusations of war crimes made it more difficult for the Republic to act to end the crisis. Arguing that all dues had now been paid, he asked that normal service be restored. The board, orchestrated by Taral, refused, pointing out that the energy prices had been sold at vastly undervalued prices, due to the energy lobby which he had supported in order to gain office, meaning Sarapin now had a massive deficit which the Republic refused to shore up, and there was a lot of dissent on the planet, as the people were enlightened to their unique position and there was much resentment towards the Republic, reinforced by the fate of Mandalorian space. Panicking, the chancellor tried to bribe Taral, to make sure it didn’t get out that he had used the energy lobby to gain office by promising them cheap energy, a promise he couldn’t really make without Sarapin’;s backing. Taral leaked the information, and backed up by the earlier storm of war crimes and brutality, he was recalled on charges of corruption, and the blockade grew, however Taral’s fleet, the defence grid and the fear of damaging the energy supplies caused the Republic to stay their hand, as did the keenness to avoid any more accusations of heavy handed and murderous tactics. Made to look increasingly powerless, Taral revelled in the inability of the Republic to act, and her ships goaded the blockade every day, trying to lure them into open conflict, and ships from colonies and rim planets, similarly screwed by the Republic, began to flock to her banner, sending tensions to boil as the defiant Sarapin emboldened other planets, as anti-Republic legislation spread

Things reached a head when Coruscant went totally dark, preventing all travel, transport and work to the planet. The chancellor stood down, as while he had technically done nothing wrong, in this situation it looked worse, and the vice chancellor asked the Jedi to get involved. The Grand Master himself took a frigate under the guise of truce, intending to settle the matter. The people were defiant, but the board were in a panic, believing they were about to lose everything, but all of it played right into Taral’s hands. She had let it be known that there was a small gap in the defence grid to a smuggler, and several smuggling ships were en route to capitalise. She had the commander of Sarapin’s flagship, the _Vaapad_ , offer an escort to the frigate bearing the Houk Grand Master Embanome Regass, sending fighters to meet his ship. And the smugglers arrived at the perfect time, one of them setting off the defence grid. Tensions erupted as the blockade opened fire, and the Grand Master’s ship was destroyed in the chaos, killing him and two other council members, thrilling Taral. Her fleet retreated back to the planet as many of the blockade and smuggler ships were destroyed, and the Jedi had no choice but to enter the flak field, heading for the planet to end the crisis. Several Jedi were lost to the guns of the defence grid and the Sarapin allied fleet, and the board tried to surrender in panic. Taral then left the boardroom as her pet vaapad emerged and slaughtered them all. The fleet remained in orbit, shooting at the Jedi but one small craft entered and landed at the Jedi ruins. There Yoda met Taral, and asked her to end the conflict. She consented, providing the Republic start treating Sarapin right and with one call the conflict ended and the blockade dispersed, and she and Yoda were proclaimed as heroes. Seen as the one who wouldn’t be swayed by the boards greed, the new chancellor, fearing a repeat, honoured her requests and energy once more started to flow, and Sarapin stood out to the whole galaxy as the rewards of defiance. The Republic had been severely undermined in their own backyard, they had been proved cowardly and ineffective and powerless, their security forces were no match for anyone on an equal footing and could only succeed through treachery or surprise, and the Jedi were accused of propping up a corrupt system of people who exploited those they were to protect. The energy crisis was over, and was a major win for the Sith

Taral now ruled Sarapin as the head of a new board, but now, she used the press as her weapon, speaking out in favour of those with grievances against the Republic, offering cut price deals on energy for those who could further disrupt the Republic. In her role, she looked out for the little guy, and became a champion to those the Republic exploited.

Incorporating these beliefs, she argued in her teachings that compassion and empathy could be used as weapons, and in her hands they were, however later Sith, unknown to her, could easily misunderstand her teachings and try to make the Sith something they are not. She also argued that killing for killing’s sake was foolish, and that the Sith did not necessarily need to be murderers and monsters to succeed. She continued to subtly influence defiance against the Republic, though once every few months she would travel to the Jedi ruins and meet with Yoda, enjoying his company, and flaunting the fact that she was right under the nose of someone who was being pegged for the role of Master of the Order. In secret however, she continued to advance the schemes of the Sith, furthering dissent and provoking conflict when possible. Under her reign, she funded civil wars, she started the Bothan Colonial conflict in which the settlement of Kothlis was thrown into dispute, she sabotaged efforts by the Rodians to colonise other worlds, she had the Twi’lek senator murdered to expose his connection to a Hutt cartel, she funded a slave rebellion on Malastare that the Republic helped the Grans put down which made for more condemnations of Republic brutality,, she had Quarren separatists poison a Mon Cal area nearly provoking a civil war which the Jedi had to prevent, she stoked anger and sponsored a state coup on Tibrin and frequently caused chaos, using her knowledge of compassion and defender of those who could not defend themselves to advance her aims.

Provoking more and more conflicts to make the Republic look powerless, she one day realised the truth: her battle hardened body was beginning to fail her. Furious with this, and regretting the necessity as she didn’t like working with others, and didn’t wish to be succeeded by anyone. But her loyalty to the Sith overrode her distaste, and disdainfully, she found herself an apprentice. Her apprentice was a Yam’Rii, and it was during her attempts to kickstart another war with the Kalee that she discovered this clan leader. Allowing him to discover her, he followed her, observing her framing the Yam’Rii for the murder of several Kalee. Enraged, he tried to attack her, and she cast him down, taking him against his will, and to fuel her failing health, she slaughtered his entire hive. Back on Sarapin, she told him everything, and after months of torture and sadism, and outright contempt, he agreed to become her apprentice, in exchange for making sure his people won the current conflict. She ingrained the Rule of Two into him, though made it clear she disliked the notion of him succeeding her. All through his training, she pondered her choice, but sensing her own time was near, she realised she had no choice and couldn’t allow the Sith to end with her. However, like Bane before her, she began to fear that Rapax wouldn’t challenge her for the throne, and became increasingly worried about the Sith. She resolved to force the issue when her health failed, her lungs and heart, ravaged by the dark side and years of abuse, beginning to shut down. As she lay, dying, Rapax came and watched, content to let her die and not even finish the job. Condemning him for his laziness and cowardice, Taral died slowly, as Rapax calmly watched, cursing him for failing her and the Sith. In her final moments, Taral saw a colony of insects, and killed them with the Force, angering Rapax, and using their energy, she pounced on her apprentice and used her Tunroth hunting knife to stab her apprentice, who mocked her. Cackling, Taral boasted that she had tipped her blade in hssiss venom (she had kept one as a pet when her vaapad had died) and that he wouldn’t find a cure, and she died, mocking her apprentice and believing that his apprentice would at least be worthy of the Sith.

****

** Darth Rapax **

Species: Yam’rii male

Birth Name: Kirritak  
Reign: 666 BBY-651 BBY, 651 BBY-638 BBY

  
Info: A clan leader, he was prepared to lead his clan against the Kalee in yet another war over territory. However, the war had been provoked by Darth Taral and in order to widen the conflict to aid in the Republic’s downfall by making it seem impotent, she framed his clan, intending to have the Republic and the Jedi come down hard on the Yam’rii. Discovering her, he foolishly attacked her, only for her to cast him down and return with him to Sarapin after slaughtering his hive in order to sustain her. Revealing what she was after months of despair, hatred and torture, Taral took him as an apprentice, Rapax, in exchange for promising to change the fortunes of the war for his species.

Sensing that his master was forced to choose him out of necessity, little connected the two Sith, as given her way she wouldn’t train at all, or if she would it wouldn’t be him as he was an act of desperation, as she feared she didn’t have long left. Despite that she ingrained him with devotion to the Sith cause, and taught him that by exploiting the underclasses and the systems and methods of the Republic, it could go a long way to helping the Sith to victory. She instilled him with the belief that compassion and empathy could be used as weapons, something which he disagreed with on the most basic level after being hardened by war for generations. While under her tutelage he became proficient in scheming and the art of saber combat, Taral always questioned her choice and nothing other than their loyalty to the Sith bound them together, and the two detested each other with a passion, Taral forced to live with a substandard apprentice as her health failed her quicker than anticipated, and Rapax forced to learn from the woman who had condemned his world to war and slaughtered his hive. However as time went on it became clear that Taral was dying, and Rapax opted to sit and wait, knowing he couldn’t defeat his master in an outright fight, so chose patience instead, preferring to let nature do his work for him. This further enraged Taral, and convinced her she had doomed the Sith. Unable to find another apprentice, she realised that Rapax would have to go, but she didn’t have the time to train another. As she lay on her deathbed, and realising Rapax had no intention of even giving her the benefit of a swift death, Taral was enraged and got her hunting knife, imbibed with poison from her pet hssiss. Rapax sat down to watch her die, and slaughtering a family of spiders and draining their life force, in a last fit of furious spiteful rage she struck, plunging the dagger into her apprentice. While the blow would not kill him, the poison would. Rapax was horrified, claiming she’d destroyed the Sith, but Taral merely laughed and claimed she had destroyed a failure, and that his apprentice would save the Sith, and she was consumed by dark side energy and died.

Rapax was livid, and sought out the most proficient doctors he could find, scouring the galaxy for years, to no avail. The venom could not be countered and could only be kept at bay. Determined to find a healer, he scoured the galaxy, departing Sarapin in the process. He came to Uvena, and there he heard tell of a shaman. His every breath a torment, Rapax looked for the shaman and found him to be Force sensitive. Allowing himself to be inspected, the Shistaven admitted he couldn’t save Rapax until he knew more. Rapax promised that if he did, he would know power, but this didn’t convince the shaman. Every day Rapax returned, determined to have a cure made for him, and while the Shistaven did everything he could to save him, he could still not figure out a way to save Rapax. Getting angry, Rapax brought the Force to bear, using it against the shaman, trying to force him into fixing him. The wolfman broke loose and attacked Rapax, and to the Sith’s surprise, disarmed him, and used a technique of his own invention to render him helpless. Promising to still save Rapax, he consented to becoming his private healer, provided Rapax taught him more of his strange power.

Rapax consented, and as the Shistaven observed more of the Yam’rii struggle with the hssiss poison the more he learned. Named Darth Praetor, the Shistaven couldn’t learn as a normal apprentice, as exertion weakened his master considerably. Instead, while Rapax focused on his own health and the war between the Yam’rii and Kalee, he gave Praetor access to the knowledge of all the previous Sith, and he used his knowledge to advance his learning and he began to use the dark side to learn new healing arts. During those years, Rapax focused on the war on his own world while demanding that Praetor undertake increasingly risky missions, including entering the Jedi temple to steal a holocron which could risk the exposure of the Sith, but when this was pointed out, Rapax insisted it was necessary so that he could survive. Praetor used bounty hunters as intermediaries and got the healing holocron and Rapax then insisted that he do whatever it took, even consider using the light side if he had to, if that meant saving his masters life. Praetor asked about the Grand Plan and Rapax said that there would be no plan if he died before finishing his training, and continued to occupy the Sith’s attention on the war engulfing his own world. To this end, he collected a group of merciless soldiers and murderers, binding them into a xenophobic group called the Reinmarch, headed by a dangerous human by the name of Skakor. This group was funded by the Sith and was terribly xenophobic, slaughtering and butchering innocent people on whatever worlds they landed on, conquering planets and executing hostages, beheading people on the holonet and claiming they wouldn’t stop until their demands were met. The Republic and the Jedi were unable to respond to the threat, as the roving army kept moving on to new planets. Sullust, Dac, Kashyyyk, Uvena, Kalee, Gamorr and a host of other planets were struck, and the brutal tactics used proved just how ineffectual the Republic and the Jedi were. Rapax orchestrated the whole thing while forcing his apprentice to learn more healing arts to save him. As the Reinmarch left to head to Kalee to use a baradium bomb to wipe them out, Praetor told his master he had the knowledge he needed to save him. Rapax ordered Praetor to save him, and Praetor struck, using his claws to rip open his master’s thorax.

Declaring that Rapax was unfit to be a Sith, as he had squandered their resources on a personal vendetta and had caused far too much attention to come to them, and cared more for his life and his planet than the aims of the Sith. Proclaiming himself the true lord of the Sith and the true heir to Darth Taral, Praetor watched in satisfaction as his master died a painful death at his feet.

****

** Darth Praetor **

Species: Shistavanen male

Birth Name: Crassk Sartoum  
Reign: 643 BBY-638 BBY, 638 BBY-611 BBY

  
Info: A healing shaman of his people, the wolfman was found by Rapax as he scoured the galaxy looking for a healer to cure him of the poison that Taral had infected him with. When the wolfman tried to save Rapax, Rapax tried to convince him to join him, and after humbling him, the wolfman consented to travel with him, becoming Darth Praetor. Training him in the hopes he would heal him, Rapax was unable to train him properly due to the poison and instead allowed him to learn from various scrolls, books and holocrons while he focused on the war with the Kalee and on his health. Praetor began to believe that his master was unfit to be a Sith but nonetheless learned ably, learning how dark side power could be used to further his healing powers. As years went by, his masters obsession with healing himself and the war with the Kalee prevented him from teaching Praetor properly, and the apprentice came to realise his master didn’t care to teach him, he just needed him to save his life. Praetors suspicions were confirmed when Rapax told him to infiltrate the Jedi temple and steal a holocron which could hold the key to his healing. Disgusted by his masters desperation to survive driving him to even consider using Jedi lore for help, Praetor immersed himself in the histories of the Sith, particularly the teachings of Darth Bane, Cognus and Taral. His ailing master forced him to learn Jedi healing arts, becoming more brutal, merciless and bloodthirsty as he became more and more determined to survive and have his apprentice learn everything he could, at one point ordering him to call on the light side if it meant his survival. Convinced Rapax was a threat to the Sith, the creation of the Reinmarch and the brutal tactics that Rapax authorised as they spread across the galaxy convinced Praetor the time had come. Upon learning that his master had authorised the Reinmarch to use a baradium bomb, Praetor knew he had to act. As Rapax waited for Kalee to be destroyed, he told his master he knew the secret, and the greedy insect demanded he be healed at once. Proclaiming himself the true Dark Lord and the true heir to Taral and Bane’s legacy, he then ripped open his master’s neck and chest with his claws, savouring his masters death before eating him and becoming the master, disavowing Rapax and posthumously exiling him from the order as a selfish, speciesist bigot who squandered Sith resources and failed to properly train the next generation, sabotaging the entire Sith imperative.

Now in charge of his own education, Praetor nonetheless knew action had to be taken. He summoned the entire Reinmarch together and ordered them all to bomb Kalee, gathering them all in one place, and then, in order to save the Kalee, stop the war and hide his involvement, he tipped off the Republic. The Republic and Jedi fought the Reinmarch in orbit above Kalee, detonating the bomb and destroying the forces of the Reinmarch and ending the threat of exposure, allowing Praetor to focus more on his studies. Seeing himself as the true apprentice of Darth Taral, who he had a great deal of respect for, he removed every single aspect of his master’s influence on the Sith and as a result the only mentions of Rapax, who he considered as nothing more than a bungling, useless traitor, were those made by Taral and by Praetor in their own writings. Now a master healer, he self taught himself the lightsaber and other techniques, heading into seclusion to focus on his studies and commune with the sheer power of the dark side. 

Having communed with the dark side for two years, Praetor decided the time had come to cast his own shadow as a Sith Lord. Having removed all mention of his master, he hunted down the offshoots of Rapax’s familial hive, ending the job that Taral had begun. He also began stoking the desires for Corellian independence, along with promoting free trade and tax free zones in the outer rim. In his public persona however he was a noted medical researcher and healer. To this end, he was consulted on various new drugs and got the Sith involved in that market, making them a great fortune and funding new medical research. Praetor then realised a way to make his skills to work to his advantage, and engineered the release of the Brainrot plague. While not actually creating the plague or bringing it about, he had heard talk that people were at risk of spreading infection on Taris. An earthquake had struck the main continent, and a greater concentration of people were now huddled together, and as a result, there was a greater chance of sickness resulting from the damage. Seeing that the Brainrot plague could easily spread, Praetor used various types of smugglers, pirates and mercenaries to strike at any ship carrying aid to Taris, and the few that were getting through weren’t enough. After a month, the first case emerged, and from there, it spread like wildfire through the homeless and evacuated populace. It then spread to aid workers, and then spread to other inhabited worlds in the area, resulting in millions of deaths.

The plague in full swing, Praetor acted, condemning the Republic for not doing enough to stop the outbreak, and now that it had happened, they weren’t doing enough to cure the sick either. In his guise as a healer, he began to speak out against the government, and begun pouring aid to healing the people he had allowed to become afflicted. Travelling to Taris himself, he began to heal people, and eventually the plague started to come under control, though the death toll was in the millions and the Republic looked ineffectual. In this time, Praetor created a holocron, as he had realised that healing, while a Jedi art, was useful to the Sith too, and anyone healed by the Sith could be used to their advantage, not realising that the manipulation of beings through doing good was also open to corruption. While on Taris, two Jedi arrived to help clear up the last of the plague, and Praetor, through the network of loyal people he had accumulated through his healing, was kept abreast of their movements, and it was the Togorian apprentice who caught his eye, it was clear that she was frustrated with the lack of effort on the Republic’s part and just wanted to help people, which she couldn’t do as it didn’t always suit the Republics wants. Using this, Praetor began to study her intently, learning that she had many problems, and that this final mission was the one that would decide her place in the order. Manufacturing a threat to the senator who he healed during the crisis, he had the senator ask the Jedi for help, and used others he had healed to pose the threat. In a false assassination attempt, the Togorian’s Quarren master was killed, and she started to give in to her anger. Praetor arrived just in time and subdued the Togorian, and spirited her away to his medical company’s headquarters.

When there he stoked her long repressed anger and dissent, feeding her feelings of impotence and playing on the fact that she blamed herself for her master’s death. The Togorian resisted at first, but Praetor used logic and brought out her angry, haughty, prideful nature, indulging her, and steadily drawing her to the dark side. Praetor continued to goad her, and she started to embrace the dark side, and Praetor then revealed that the senator had helped inhibit the Republic’s efforts on Taris and goaded into a rage, she killed him. It was only then that Praetor revealed what he truly was, and believing that the Jedi and the Republic were too weak to do what needed to be done, she bowed to him and became his apprentice.

With Segraetor now his apprentice, he continued to teach her, allowing her to grow in power in the dark side as she gave herself totally to the cause of the Sith, realising that only through them could change be affected. The two were together for some time and it was then that the two began to develop feelings for one another. While both resisted, with both of them fearing for the future of the Sith, eventually they gave in to their feelings and became lovers, something new to both of them. They were an effective partnership for many years, with Praetor wielding healthcare and healing as his chosen weapon, while Segraetor watched and advanced her own schemes, both of them chipping away at the Republic, which was now losing whole planets or sectors to plague. However there was always the fear that their relationship would doom the Sith.

One night however, the two of them were celebrating the successful export of another disease out of Neimodia, this time to Coruscant, and the two of them were having a night of passion, celebrating the illness on the Republic’s capital that made them look even worse and increased demands for secession and independence from the Republic. During a steamy encounter, Segraetor revealed that she had had his men corrupt several batches of drugs, which would kill thousands when they reached the market, in order to further erode the Republic and also throw the economy and the leadership of the galaxy into chaos. Praetor reprimanded her, saying that it would jeopardise their monopoly and their power base in the field, and Segraetor then told him she had no use for it, and revealed that the tablets he had been taking for a slight illness of himself were poisoned. She then revealed that she had injected him with the illness herself, and she knew that either that or the drugs would kill him, and then gently used the Force to precipitate a heart attack which killer her master and lover and allowed her to become the new Dark Lord of the Sith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Sith are on the up and up, though sadly, we are now entering the Dark Times of the Sith
> 
> Please kudos and comment with any questions!


	3. The Contagion Spreads - Dark Times of the Sith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Misinterpreted teachings spread like contagion into the Order of the Sith Lords, culminating in a disaster that could very well jeopradise the Grand Plan and bring about the downfall of the Sith, and leading to the Dark Times of the Sith

Order of the Sith Lords

** The Contagion Spreads **

** Darth Segraetor **

Species: Togorian female

Birth Name: Eltara Merrin  
Reign: 625 BBY-611 BBY, 611 BBY-597 BBY

  
Info: Formerly a Jedi, Segraetor was always frustrated with the increasing incompetence, bloating and corruption of the Republic. That, combined with her nature as a Togorian, meant that every day as a Jedi was a struggle to remain in control of her emotions, despite the tutelage of her Quarren master Quenda. Wishing to enforce change on the Republic which she was not able to do as a Jedi, she was deeply frustrated, particularly with their actions in the Brainrot epidemic where they let millions die because they were too lazy and incompetent to organise a response. It was her assignment to Taris that brought her to the attention of Darth Praetor, who had orchestrated much of the brainrot plague. Organising an attempt upon the life of the senator, Quenda was killed and Praetor got his hands on the apprentice, and eventually goaded her into giving in to her anger, and her nature and she ascended to the rank of full apprentice. Now determined to use the dark side to one day affect change on the Republic, she studied the dark side intently under her master, becoming a loyal supporter of the Sith. In time she and her master became lovers, though both of them questioned if they would have the ability to continue to enforce the Rule of Two due to their relationship. However, despite this the two continued to advance the plans of the Sith, Praetor using his medical company and knowledge to weaken the Republic and the Jedi, while Segreator turned her attention to the outer rim, sensing that that would be the future of their plans. In time, she came to the realisation that she could end the practices of Praetor, his company and still cause havoc in the Republic at the same time. Sabotaging a batch of antibiotics, she allowed the drugs out onto the market, and when her master fell ill with the illness that the drugs that would be needed to treat (due to her infecting him), she gave him the drugs then revealed their sabotage, and regretfully gave him a heart attack and became the master, though she did mourn the loss of her lover.

Now the sole Sith, Segreator began to advance her plans, and began to stoke resentment in the outer rim territories, and was the first Sith lord to realise that mega corporations would be an invaluable weapon against the Republic and the Jedi. To this end, the Commerce Guild became her weapon of choice. However this was not done quickly. Realising that by becoming involved in such power plays would be dangerous she spent many months researching these corporations and eventually settled on the ones to remove in order to exploit others for the ends of the Sith. Czerka was her main opponent, which had grown into a considerable pain since the end of the last war. Redubbing itself Czerka Arms, it had moved away from the outright corruption and evil doing though still acted illicitly behind the scenes. This became clear on the small outer rim asteroid field of Vergesso. Segraetor, having dissociated herself with the collapse of her masters medical company, had become a corporate judge, and while she didn’t possess precognition, her intuition was great, and through her agents had learned that there were several large deposits of phrik alloy in the asteroid field. The Commerce Guild wanted to lay stake to the claim but Czerka wished to use the alloys to create weapons, however Segraetor wasn’t inclined to let that happen. Czerka moved first, sending in a survey team along with an armed escort. Segraetor couldn’t allow them to succeed and took her ship to rendezvous, under the guise of helping them stake the claim. Once on the escort ship, she set loose with the Force, destroying the ship and its claim, allowing it to fall into the asteroids and be pulverised. On her orders, the Commerce Guild then moved in, unaware that Czerka had been there first. Czerka then lodged a protest with the senate, while the Commerce Guild began to mine the phrik. Due to the distance of Vergesso, the senate was slow to respond, and in response, Czerka sent a task force to take back the asteroid field. A Commerce Guild ship was destroyed, and Segraetor then brought evidence to the authorities, proving Czerka had committed an illegal, as far as anyone knew, attack. Czerka was forced to withdraw, however Segraetor’s actions had earned her their ire. On the other hand, the Commerce Guild petitioned to create its own powerful security force, which it did in order to protect its claim and began to mine the phrik, distributing it throughout the outer rim. Segraetor encouraged this, knowing that the core would exploit the workers in the outer rim and increase further resentment, and that Czerka, in retaliation for the guild getting the phrik, would continue to make matters worse.

Seeking to capitalise on this, Segraetor began to move events into motion. Knowing that the Sith plan depended upon Corellia and its eventual rebellion against the Republic, she needed to set up an economy, which of course wouldn’t be possible until the outer rim had a sustainable economy of its own. To this end she attended a lecture on Cato Neimodia, where a prominent Neimodian banker with ties to Aargau and Muunilinst was speaking. Hearing him speak, it became apparent that he wished to pilot a scheme, a commerce zone in the outer rim without Republic trade restrictions, that would give a fair deal to those in the outer rim and make it worth their while to actually live there, without the core or corporations taking advantage. Segraetor realised that this man was the one she needed the help of, and as she approached him, she realised he was Force sensitive, not exceptionally powerful, but powerful enough to make a grand Sith lord. Asking for a private meeting, she realised that he sought to end Republic oversight, and as such, she allied herself with him, and while he continued to promote the cause for a free trade zone in the outer rim, she would attend to developing the resources that would be needed to one day bring about an end to the Republic.

When not meeting with the Neimodian and helping him set aside resources to set up the free trade zone without the interference of the Republic, Segraetor continued to expand the power of the Commerce Guild, and included the Corporate Alliance, the Techno Union and the Banking Clan among others in these schemes, getting them to mineral claims or investment opportunities first, while defying powerful groups such as Czerka, as she sought to reduce the power of the arms lobbyists, as she was attempting to build up an arsenal without relying on them too much. Meanwhile, she took special notice of deposits of minerals and resources that could be used for later use for war, such as those used to build ships and taking special care when she discovered deposits of things like phrik and cortosis to set them aside for later use against the Jedi. However, as Czerka was being increasingly forced out of the market, she was garnering negative attention. When Techno Union agents discovered a large source of aurodium, Segraetor again allowed the Commerce Guild to take the contract, which resulted in another security expansion. Czerka however was furious, as the world was within their space. Contesting it, Segraetor went before the courts and argued that while in their space, the Techno Union had discovered it and Czerka had no stake, which the courts agreed with, and the guilds got sole access to the valuable resources, which cost Czerka potential billions.

Meeting with her Neimodian ally on Cato Neimodia, she met him in his tower on one of the bridges, and he had invited her to hold a meeting of share holders there. With various representatives there, in her guise as leading advisor, she settled their problems and had them head off, all the groups eager for more money and power. However as the meeting disbanded, Starfighters attacked the tower, slaughtering the heads of the companies and their security details. Segraetor used the Force to get the Neimodian out the room, and she joined him, and they were confronted by mercenaries hired by Czerka to kill her. She slaughtered them with her lightsaber, and revealed herself to the shocked Neimodian, and offered him the use of her lover’s lightsaber which she kept as a backup. Shocked, the Neimodian accepted the weapon and became her apprentice, and combined, the two of them slaughtered their way out. Training him as she went, Segraetor led her new apprentice on a bloody slaughter. Capturing a gunship, she then followed the trail along with Darth Opes back to Czerka headquarters on Denon where they slaughtered the board and sent the company into chaos

With a new board of leaders in charge of the various guilds, Segraetor’s influence diminished. However, now that she had helped them establish themselves, and established new rules and methods for them to follow, including allowing them powerful security forces, she was content to withdraw, allowing that situation to trundle on itself. Instead she devoted herself to teaching her apprentice, and working with Opes, setting aside funds, highlighting resources for later use, allowing the corporations to become stronger while stoking outer rim resentment and fuelling the fires of independence and the cries of freedom from the Republic. As a teacher, Segraetor was patient and hard, and taught Opes the intricacies of the plan, using the outer rim and Corellia as flashpoints that would help bring down the Republic, which was all the more likely with his help and his plan to create a corporation and tax free trading zone in the outer rim. Segraetor instilled in her apprentice the belief that while people ought to be exploited and ruled, power shouldn’t be used for powers sake, and hence the extravagance of previous Sith was to be discontinued, and that one didn’t have to be a maniac to be a Sith. She argued that the galaxy was inherently flawed, and that the Sith’s responsibility was to fix it, and ensure peace, which the bloated and corrupt Republic would never allow nor would the decadent Jedi. Unknowingly however, this too was a mark of the contagion that had infected the Sith teachings, though neither she nor Opes realised it at the time.

After having trained her apprentice for ten years, improving the power of the guilds and hence the dissatisfaction of those in the outer rim while the core grew fat on the profits, Segraetor was helping the Commerce Guild lay claim to a world with rich nova deposits, with the help of Opes. However, Czerka, which had suffered greatly after the two Sith had dismantled the upper echelons of their organisation, had regained some ground and were looking for revenge. They knew that Segraetor was involved with their woes, and many blamed her and her involvement with the guilds for Czerka’s recent plunge in fortunes, as many staff had lost their jobs and the leaders of the company had had to resign or worse to them, take pay cuts. So when she organised the mining operation on Sembla, Czerka, eager for revenge, employed GenoHaradaan assassins to try and kill her. Opes was with her, however the sabotage of a nova refinery separated the two, and the assassins descended on the site en masse. While both Sith fought valiantly, the assassins gained the upper hand, and Segraetor was killed while her horrified apprentice watched on

****

** Darth Opes **

Species: Neimodian male

Birth Name: Sethul Haark  
Reign: 607 BBY-597 BBY, 597 BBY-573 BBY

  
Info: Born into a life of privilege on Cato Neimodia, Opes was unusual, being the only child of a wealthy couple. Upon reaching the age of five, his mother revealed that she had killed all but him, using her own marginal sense of the Force to realise that of all her children, he was, in her words, ‘the only one who would be worth a damn’. Raised to inherit his father’s shipping business, he was enrolled at school on Coruscant, learning tricks and trade secrets, and also branching out into finance, further developing the fortune of his family. On Coruscant, he mingled with various sons of commerce and trade, and upon yet another banking crisis, which further undermined confidence in the Republic and led to more and more people wanting a change as they were fed up of the constant scandals diminishing the value of their money. To that end, he started consulting in debating societies, and was sounded out by the Muun senator along with his friends to give their opinion. As part of his work with that, he graduated from university and became a consultant to the IBC and a personal adviser to the Muun senator, working with him until the end of the Muun’s term as senator. It was during this time that he postulated to the Muun that they set up a free trade zone, away from the corruption of the Republic and free of their influence, an idea which the Muun supported and Opes began making pushes to bring this about.

However, he was called home when his father died of the Brainrot epidemic. Assuming his role as leader of the family company, Opes now had access to vast sums of money, and was frequently involved in negotiations with groups such as the Commerce Guild. Frustrated with the Republic inability to help his homeworld, and disgusted by how the government left his people to dry, he began seeing his proposed free trade zone idea as a means to end the Republic: by creating a new government, one that wouldn’t fail its people and use the Jedi as a crutch. He expanded his business and began funnelling funds towards the end of creating his Republic free zone, and wrote many articles on the subject, and was asked to consult various planetary governments and help them set up their own operations and power bases without Republic interference. He used their backing to further advocate his Republic free zone, and gave a series of lectures about the subject as people began to believe he could make it work. It was this action that brought him to the attention of Darth Segraetor

Consulting with him in a private audience, Segraetor realised that he sought to destroy the Republic by replacing it with something new and better. Promising to help, she used her resources and knowledge to help him build up his power base. Opes, for his part, realised there was something different about the Togorian woman and would always make time for her, as her visits became more and more frequent as he accelerated towards creating a new governmental blueprint. Opes continued to build up his support and power base, despite increasing senate attention, seeking to prevent him creating his Republic free zone.

Inviting Segraetor to Cato Neimodia to hear her thoughts on the world he had selected to be his prototype, Etti IV, she hired a suite from him and asked him to observe her dealings with the heads of the various guilds. The meeting was attacked by Czerka, bombarding the tower and slaughtering the guild leadership. Segraetor got Opes out, only to be confronted by mercenaries. Killing them all, she was exposed as a Sith, and offered Opes the chance to become her apprentice. Upon his agreement, tantalised by the power she wielded and the desire to destroy the Republic, she gifted him Praetor’s lightsaber, and the two killed their way out of the trap, stealing a gunship. En route to Denon, she gave him brief instruction in the dark side, and granted him his Sith name, explaining the Rule of Two and the nature of their partnership before slaughtering the board of Czerka directors.

Withdrawing from guild leadership roles, Segraetor spent her time training her apprentice, instilling her beliefs that might made right, and that they, as Sith, had a duty to save the galaxy from itself, which agreed with Opes belief that the Sith should help those they could, in order to better use them as pawns to achieve their ends and to contribute to peace and stability. Involving herself in his plans as the Etti IV system, with his backing, became essentially independent from the Republic. The Jedi attempted to bring Etti IV back to the fold, but they were rebuffed by Sith manipulations. Segraetor continued to teach her apprentice, revealing to him the entirety of the plan and the two worked together, building up resources, stimulating crises, all with the aim of making the Republic look weak. The plan advanced, and now the political situation was maturing, weapons were being built, an economy was flourishing, all they needed to do was stimulate a crisis and deal with the Jedi, and the Sith would exact their revenge, and Segraetor made it obvious that while they would not succeed within a few decades they could precipitate the end of the Republic

On a mission to Sembla in which his master allowed the Commerce Guild to exploit a new nova deposit, Czerka who had been frequently undermined by Segraetor and frequently screwed over were seeking revenge. While the board had been slaughtered, others in the lower echelons who were now the new board, knew of Segraetor and figured her role in their sudden advancement. As such they hired the GenoHaraadan and they descended en masse, attacking the two Sith, who were eventually overwhelmed and Segraetor was mortally wounded. A horrified Opes overcame the last of the assassins, and Segraetor entrusted him with the continuation of the Sith imperative as she died

Unexpectedly finding himself the master, Opes now had to continue the aims of the Sith while finding his own place as a master and finding an apprentice capable and worthy of carrying on his legacy. His first order of business was to deal with Czerka and the GenoHaradan. To that end, he infiltrated Czerka’s headquarters, and set a baradium bomb. Allowing that to go off, he slaughtered virtually the entire leadership of the company, sending them into disarray, and at the same time, acting through various agents and hired thugs, pirates and mercenaries to attack Czerka holdings and assassinate officials. With his actions, Czerka was decimated and unable to recover from the damage done to it, sending it in a downwards spiral that eliminated them as an impediment for decades if not centuries to come. The assassins guild were a different matter. Allowing Etti IV to develop according to its own devices, Opes infiltrated the guild and began systematically picking people off, eventually killing its leading members and sending them into chaos and disorder. Satisfied, Opes returned his attention to Etti IV, and with his sponsorship, allowed for two more systems to join the free zone, further weakening the Republic and convincing an increasingly belligerent Corellia, among other worlds, to set up their own free trade zones free of Republic influence.

For the next several years, Opes continued to back these various independence and Republic free movements, knowing that they would eventually be the key to destroying the Republic. He did however realise that their plan thus far depended upon their ability to destroy the Republic, and while a war would weaken the Jedi, it wouldn’t destroy them and he needed to fix that oversight. However, while he used the dark side to meditate on the future of the Jedi and how to solve that problem, his agents alerted him to the knowledge that someone was searching for the Sith. At first Opes ignored the warning, believing it was some sort of crank, however as time went on, he heard more and more reports that someone was searching for the Sith, following whatever whispers they could, and Opes knew he had to act before they drew the attention of the Jedi.

Seeking out this mysterious pursuer, Opes finally encountered him on Anchoron. Having been following the same rumours this searcher had (and silencing a number of those spreading such rumours, while allowing just enough to survive to let them know there was something to be scared of) he came to a prophet of the dark side who had left Dromund Kaas. Recognising the man for what he was, Opes laid in wait and finally, a man appeared, asking for information to find the Sith, which the prophet (who was an exile) was only too happy to provide. However Opes then entered, using the Force to rip the eyes out of the prophet’s head before using his lightsaber to decapitate him. He then turned his attention to the man, intending to kill him and end his search.

The man stayed Opes hand by using a rudimentary aspect of the Force. Curious, Opes then asked why he was searching for the Sith, and the man revealed to him an asteroid mining facility where much darkness resided. He believed it to be a nexus of dark side energy, and curious, Opes cautiously agreed to accompany him to this asteroid. Upon arrival he discovered the dark side nexus there, along with the Force phantoms the man was capable of creating. Impressed with his power, Opes offered to teach him the ways of the Sith, and the man accepted, becoming Darth Vectivus.

Opes found Vectivus a difficult apprentice, however the dark side asteroid and his own power meant that he could not act against him, and laboured on with his training. Vectivus was already an adult, and had a large family and host of friends that he cared about. What was more, he also possessed a moral code, and believed, as Opes did, that those with power should use it to better the lives of others. Not realising that this was a dangerously grey area for a Sith due to his own apprenticeship, Opes continued to teach him, and indulged his apprentice’s fascination for the Sith, allowing him to study as much as he could while he continued to forward the plans of the Sith, capitalising on various crises, stoking the independence debate, empowering the guilds and setting up alternatives to the Republic, and operating through the female Twilek aide that became the de facto leader of the Sith. With the help of Vectivus, Opes also learned how to use Force phantoms, using them as his agents (including dealing with Czerka employees from a distance should they try and rise again). He also sent these phantoms to plague the Jedi temple, using them as spies and occasionally having them attack Jedi only for them to disperse after the deed was done. Opes instilled his belief that the Sith had the right to rule, and while Vectivus understood his masters points, he refused to commit to the Grand Plan, forcing Opes to do more and more on his own.

Eventually, the tension and what Opes believed was Vectivus lack of commitment to the Sith came to a head. Opes had made great strides with the Republic free zone, stockpiles were being built of weapons to use against the Jedi, the Sith now had active interests in several large guilds, businesses and shipyards across the galaxy, he was encouraging further dissent against the Republic and more and more planets were beginning to follow Corellia’s lead and desire for freedom, the economy was in flux, the Republic had failed its citizens many times and there were now alternatives and he was slowly beginning to form a plan which would lead to the Jedi being eradicated, and he intended to use the phantoms to bring this about. Opes consulted his apprentice, who knew more about the phantoms thanks to his study, and Opes was enraged when Vectivus refused to help. Claiming that his masters hatred of the Republic and the Jedi, along with the cruel streak it seemed that most Sith possessed, would be a hindrance to the galaxy, he didn’t believe the Sith should plan the downfall of the Republic, and instead believed that when the time was right, the Sith would rise to power naturally, and that it had to be deserved. Opes then asked him straight if he believed in the Grand Plan, and Vectivus said he didn’t, saying that the Grand Plan would only cause harm to the galaxy. Disgusted, Opes exiled his apprentice, proclaiming him a waste, and prepared to kill his apprentice. He struck, and his apprentice vanished, and Opes realised too late that Vectivus was actually a phantom. The real Vectivus then used his lightsaber to stab his master through the eyes (echoing their first meeting which had cemented his belief in the cruelty of his master) and Opes died in the tunnels of the Home, and Vectivus jettisoned his body into the void to enure his master’s spirit didn’t strike back at him in revenge

****

** Darth Vectivus **

Species: Human male

Birth Name: Lloycar Barcsdale  
Reign: 586 BBY-573 BBY, 573 BBY-557 BBY

  
Info: Growing into adulthood unaware of his Force sensitivity, he grew up with family and friends who loved him. Becoming the director of a mining company, he established his headquarters on an asteroid near Bimmiel which had a heart of ore. He later realised as workers started to go mad from visions and assume beast like capabilities, and came to realise the asteroid was a dark side nexus and started to develop his Force powers. Eventually, the various problems caused by the nexus became too much and he manipulated events so that the asteroid was shut down, though he remained behind and set up a home there, allowing him to indulge his pre-existing fascination with the dark side of the Force and with the Sith, which prompted him to leave the asteroid and go in search of the Sith, who it was said by some, still existed hidden from the Jedi.

His desire to find the Sith eventually attracted the attention of the networks that reported to Darth Opes. Meanwhile Vectivus had travelled the galaxy, and at last came to an exiled prophet of the dark side on Anchoron, which is where he encountered Darth Opes, who killed the prophet and prepared to kill Vectivus. Vectivus displayed his Force powers, and told him of his dark side asteroid, bringing Opes to the Home (and alarming his master with his fondness for brightly painted protocol droids) and Opes agreed to take Vectivus as his apprentice, relocating the Sith to the Home as their new headquarters, far removed from the events of the galaxy.

While Darth Opes continued to advance the Grand Plan, Vectivus studied everything he could about the Sith, absorbing all the knowledge his master provided, and becoming proficient in Niman. However, his existing moral code and dedication to his family and friends were viewed as an impediment by Opes, who sought to break Vectivus out of these teachings and ways of thinking, to no avail. Opes tried to instil in him the belief and fervour to deliver the Grand Plan, but other than studying the Sith, Vectivus had no overall aims, believing that their inherent cruelty and desire for power would lead to doom for the galaxy should the Sith succeed. This eventually led to a fight, however, Vectivus, using his mastery over phantoms, deceived his master and allowed him to attack a phantom while he himself killed his master in the same way he had killed the prophet on their first meeting, and then jettisoned his body out into space so that he could not become a vengeful phantom in the asteroid

Now the Sith Master, Vectivus built a home in the asteroid and moved his family there, using his own mastery of the dark side to prevent his family and friends from going insane. During this time he mastered the use of the phantoms and created a holocron, furthering his own power in the dark side and learning everything he could about the Sith. Under his reign the plans of the Sith continued running apace though without his involvement, as he had no desire in the Sith taking over, believing, according to his ethical and moral code, that they would cause great harm upon the galaxy. He eventually took his nephew as his heir, and sensing the latent Force power in the young man, began to teach him in the ways of the dark side, allowing him to become Darth Gravid.

Gravid was an adept apprentice, and embraced his master’s teachings, however while he could see how his uncle’s teachings could be used for business, he didn’t believe that was the destiny of the Sith, and as such began to study all the other Sith lore, and came to believe that while his uncle’s teachings, combined with various teachings of other Sith that had more of a light side feel, were all very well and good, other teachings, such as those of Bane and others, were being ignored. It was then that a member of the network came in search of Opes, and learned that the Sith plan was being derailed. Gravid, intrigued and enticed by power and thoughts of glory, decided to learn more and realised the extent of the Sith plan. Furious that his uncle had allowed such a thing to go to waste, he disavowed his uncle and declared that he was no longer a Sith Lord, and was certainly not part of the Rule of Two. Gravid left and Vectivus lived out his final days in peace, surrounded by family and never saw his nephew again.

****

** Dark Times of the Sith **

** Darth Gravid **

Species: Human male

Birth Name: Clide Barcsdale  
Reign: 566 BBY-557 BBY, 557-552 BBY

  
Info: The nephew of Darth Vectivus, Vectivus took him under his wing, teaching him his business practices and once he reached a certain age, he took him as his heir and his apprentice. However, his uncle’s teachings were found insufficient, and he began to study the teachings of other Sith that had gone before him, realising that his uncle had warped the dark side aspects of the Sith. While he had the greatest respect for his uncle, he didn’t believe that the light side should become the sole domain of the Sith and began to study the dark side of them too. It was only when a minion of Darth Opes arrived on the Home and revealed the truth about the Sith imperative that Gravid realised the extent of his uncles actions, and his denial of the Sith and their true destiny. Enticed by the thought of power and wealth beyond all imagining, and disgusted that his uncle had been drawing the Sith away from the vision that Darth Bane and Zannah had set down, and driving them more towards a light side philosophy, he disavowed his uncle and left the Home with the agent, going out into the wider galaxy.

Now proclaiming himself the Sith Master, the agent informed him of the various details of the Grand Plan, and Gravid worked hard to get to grips with them quickly. The agent was a great help in this regard, and Gravid began to desire her, but she was dedicated to the Sith and refused his advances, proclaiming herself as the Sith’s most loyal servant. While annoyed, he was impressed with her devotion, and learned that she was Force sensitive. Stating her loyalty to the plan and to the Sith, he saw a way to get her to become his, and named her his apprentice, Darth Gean. With her intricate knowledge of the plan, as she had as the main agent for years despite her youth and had inherited control upon their death, she helped her master forward the plan, bringing her own ideas into it, which allowed him to focus less on the plan and more on the Sith, as they had relocated themselves to Jaguada following his abandonment of his master at the Home. Upon learning of his death, Gravid began to lament the loss of his uncle, and began to take a new approach to his teachings, while Gean took care of the Grand Plan and its forwarding. Studying his teachings, Gravid was increasingly worried by his apprentice. Gean delved into the history of the Sith with a massive thirst for knowledge, and she was always pushing herself to learn more dangerous and powerful techniques, the likes of which Vectivus and Gravid himself didn’t approve of. She was fascinated by Bane’s actions, and took pleasure in the violent history of the Sith, incorporating nearly needless violence into her saber form, as she studied Juyo. Gravid began to fear his apprentice, as her involvement in aspects of the Grand Plan, which she was accelerating to allow the Sith to exploit it and assume control over the galaxy within a century, was becoming more and more violent and dangerous, at least in his eyes. He continually studied Vectivus teachings, and when they were inappropriate, he studied the teachings of his predecessors, and became increasingly reassured that the light side could be incorporated into the Sith’s teachings, as he had begun to fear, as his uncle had, that a Sith taking over the galaxy would allow them to give into the base desires that so ruled them. He began teaching Gean one on one more and more, attempting to instil the light minded teachings into her, but her own hungry knowledge of the Sith led her to continue following only the dark side teachings, resulting in a considerable alienation between master and apprentice.

Gean by this time was beginning to doubt her master, wondering why he was so determined to incorporate light side teachings into the Sith, and began to consider that her master wasn’t entirely stable. Things began to come to a head due to two of the actions that she used to forward the Grand Plan. The first of these happened on Cadomai. A militant organisation was gathering support, and wished to overthrow the pro-Republic government and join Etti IV and become part of the developing Republic free zone. Gean had travelled there several times, setting up connections and arming them, stoking their resentment and preying on the leader of the group, who was infected with a rare genetic condition called the Blood Code. He intended to overthrow the government and declare its isolation, and she was helping. To Gravid’s surprise, she instigated a riot in the town square while the president talked to his people, and following the dictates of the Force, she helped the group seize control of the planet before departing. From there she continued to instruct and support them, wholeheartedly supporting the executions of the Republic loyalists. While she did this, she used an alter ego to contact the Republic, alerting them to the war crimes taking place on the planet. The Republic rallied the Judicial fleet and sent it to liberate Cadomai, only for the weapons that Gean had supplied the Snivvians to be turned on them, and a third of the Republic fleet was destroyed. In response, the Republic admiral commenced an orbital bombardment upon the planet, causing a massacre in the capital city. There was a galactic outcry, and the Republic was condemned, even further so when the new ruler of Cadomai was revealed to have survived, having been tipped off by Gean beforehand. The Republic was forced to retreat in humiliation, the admiral was sacked, and many more planets began to look for alternatives as there were cries that the government was becoming a tyranny. Gravid was furious with Gean, who replied that she was simply advancing the plan, and now, the Republic military had been proven inefficient at even preventing one planet, and so from now on they would rely on the Jedi, which would force the Republic and the Jedi into a position they couldn’t get out of. Gravid was alarmed by his apprentices scheming and the extent of her loyalty to the Sith, but above all, her savage pleasure in engineering the deaths of thousands made him fear for the future of the Sith, and he feared Gean’s mania, and her legacy, would corrupt what he believed to be the legacy of the Sith and doom the order and the galaxy to chaos, disorder and death, and as such, when she was away securing the next part of her plan, he sealed all the teachings she so loved away, to try and break their hold over her.

With the conflict on Cadomai developing, Gean now turned her attention to Ruuria. A simple insectoid species, she planned to use them to advance the conflict on Cadomai. The Republic asked the Jedi to retake Cadomai, and to that end they asked for the help of the local Tiss’Sharl. The Jedi retook the planet, and installed a new pro Republic government, which opened them to further dissatisfaction and protests, and once again, the leader of the coup fled, heading to nearby Ruuria on Gean’s recommendations. While the death toll was fairly negligible, the fact that Cadomai technically had to be conquered by the Republic turned many people against them, and there was still the capital city to rebuild and the high death toll to count against them. The Jedi and their forces rallied, heading to Ruuria in order to end the conflict. The Snivvian rebels were hiding in a hive, and the Jedi intended to go in with the Tiss’Sharl and end the conflict quietly and peacefully. Gean allowed them no such option. She alerted one of the Hives of the Unified Ruurian Colony, and the Ruurians were put on high alert. Believing themselves to be under attack due to a recent policy that the Ruurians had passed which was frowned upon by the Republic, the hive rallied to the defence as the Jedi and their allies entered, and fought the Jedi, believing they were there to force the Ruurians back into line. The Jedi were confronted by the Ruurian warriors and Snivvian rebels, and upon being forced to kill Ruurians in self-defence, some Tiss’Sharl and even some troops turned on the Jedi. The Jedi were forced into a corner, and either way had to fight their way out. Eventually reaching the Snivvian leader in exile, he then detonated a bomb, destroying his rebel movement and killing several Jedi. The fallout was immense. Hundreds of Ruurians had been killed by the Jedi, and while it was in self-defence, few believed this and turned on the Jedi, accusing them of murder, was crimes, savagery and barbarism. The Tiss’Sharl soldiers bodies were exhumed and some were discovered to have been killed by Jedi as well, enraging their populace against the Jedi and the Republic. The Ruurian Massacre was a complete disaster for the Republic, and most of all for the Jedi. The Jedi had been forced to kill virtually innocent warriors who were simply trying to defend their home, and by so doing had been forced to turn their sabers on others who were mistakenly trying to protect the simple Ruurians who were merely protecting themselves. The Republic was condemned galactically, and despite their protestations, the result was a loss of confidence and trust in the government, and the populace turned on the Jedi, and anti Jedi sentiment swept across the galaxy, and people began to question whether it might be safer for the people of the galaxy to remove the Jedi permanently.

Gravid was horrified, and his mind broke, while Gean was delighted. As she went to meditate on a job well done upon her return to Jaguada, he decided to act. Terrified that such actions would continue to plague the galaxy, he believed the Sith needed to be destroyed. He had tried to incorporate light side teachings, and had failed. Now, he intended to destroy the Sith, reveal their plans to the Jedi, and end the threat he believe they presented to galactic peace, freedom and security. His first act was to expose many of the vast Sith networks across the galaxy, reporting them to the government or to police forces, and as one the network began to collapse piecemeal as he turned more and more people in. He then sealed the fortress and began to destroy the accumulated centuries of Sith knowledge. While he did this, he tried to contact Coruscant, intending to reveal himself to the Jedi, expose the Sith and have them come and bring an end to their order once and for all. Believing that the light and the dark could coexist, while also believing they couldn’t, his attempts to try and justify a new path destroyed his mental state, and he came to believe that he was the new Sith’ari, who would destroy the order in order to remake it, and started to plan to defect to the Jedi. Driven insane by his attempts to conciliate both teachings, he believed the Sith had to be destroyed and it was only when he began to destroy holocrons that Gean realised her master was doing. Breaking through the energy shields, an enraged Gean disavowed her master, proclaimed him a traitor and a buffoon. Gravid, caring for her as he did, tried to redeem her and draw her to the light side, but she refused his advances, and reluctantly, he pledged that he would kill her and surrendered himself to the light side, casting aside the trappings of the Sith. Gean spat at her master, proclaimed him a traitor, registered her disgust and contempt, and with that the two engaged in a vicious duel while his call to Coruscant waited to be put through to the Jedi Council. Giving in totally to her rage, Gean beat back her master, who nonetheless severely maimed her, giving her crippling wounds. As she fell he rushed to the screen to connect the call to the Jedi, to reveal all. Gean then used the Force to drain his energy, which she had learned from the ancient teachings, slowing him down and then proceeded to slam him around the room, before crushing his body, electrocuting him with lightning and finishing her weak and pathetic master by cleaving him in two from head to groin, then slicing the halves into thirds, before she cast her masters remains into the fires that burned as a result of their duel and his attempts to destroy the Sith.

****

** Darth Gean **

Species: Twi’lek female

Birth Name: Lesha Maya’tor  
Reign: 557 BBY-552 BBY, 552 BBY-545 BBY  
Info: A former errand girl, Gean was recruited and at the age of sixteen and quickly became aware that her employers were keeping things from her. Quickly proving her competency, her bosses brought her in to the secret nature of the Sith networks, and she continued to rise through the ranks, and became one of their de facto leaders who continued to advance the would be plans of the Sith during the time when they had no contact at all with their Dark Lord masters. Gean however wished to find them, and eventually, after a lot of studying, found out where Darth Opes was last seen and headed there, and when there she found Darth Gravid, who she told of the whole nature of the Sith imperative, luring him away from his master. With her help he quickly retook control of the Sith imperative, and it was clear that she was a vital part of the plan. Quickly growing to desire her, he tried to make advances, and he was rebuffed, with Gean informing him her only loyalty was to the Sith. Impressed with her devotion despite the refusal, he then offered her the position of his apprentice, and she accepted, and became Darth Gean.

With an intricate knowledge of the Sith plan, her own thirst for knowledge made her an ideal pupil, and she studied every aspect of the Sith she could find, and took particular pleasure in studying the violent history of the Sith and admired the previous dark lords. However, her thirst for such dark knowledge and her predilection for savage acts and her quest for greater control and power alarmed her master, who was beginning to consider that the Sith would be a lot safer if they could integrate light side teachings. Gean took over responsibility for the Grand Plan, allowing her master to focus more on advancing his teachings and the knowledge of the Sith while she forwarded their plan in preparation for their assumption of power within a century. However Gravid continued trying to instil light side teachings into her, leading to a considerable alienation between the two and Gean began to question her master’s competency to lead the Sith as he seemed determined to make the Sith into something they weren’t. Despite this, her focus was the plan and her own antics took precedence, though she did keep an eye on her master, becoming increasingly concerned with his favour to light side teachings.

She orchestrated the Cadomai Coup, a bloody conflict that weakened the Republic considerably and severely undermined the Jedi, with the aim of adding Cadomai to the Republic free zone. She precipitated the coup on the planet, intending to have the pro Republic government overthrown and have Cadomai join the free zone. While assisting the coup, she was also the one who alerted the Republic to the mass murders of Republic loyalists, forcing them to get involved in the situation. The weapons she had supplied the Snivvians with were turned on the Judicial forces, destroying a third of the fleet. Alerting the new president to the possibility of a Republic reprisal, he escaped while they commenced orbital bombardment on the capital, which killed thousands. Thrilled with her success, she reported her actions to her master, who was instead alarmed by the sheer pleasure she had taken in orchestrating the entire affair, resulting in thousands of deaths and the failure of the Republic military, which would force them to rely more on the Jedi. What was more, even more planets were now petitioning for either a change in government or to join the free zone and Gean considered the plan a success, and she was only half done. However, Gravid was alarmed with the extent of her scheming, and tried once more to teach her patience, compassion and other Jedi traits, which she refused to hear, and as a result he locked away the Sith teachings that she thrived on in an attempt to break her of the habit.

Gean was becoming increasingly alarmed by her master’s actions, and resented his attempts to make her something she wasn’t. However the Cadomai conflict was taking up too much of her time, and while she was concerned about her master’s actions, she had to turn her attention to forwarding her plans. Tipped off to the Jedi intervention, she alerted the coup leader that the Jedi were coming to depose him and he escaped with his closest supporters while the Jedi reconquered the planet with the help of Tiss’Sharl warriors. The conquest of the planet proved a backlash for the Republic which had had to retake a planet which they had already made several errors in dealing with. Having the coup leader hide in the nearby Ruurian hives, she informed the Ruurians that the Jedi were coming in order to make them withdraw their petition to join the free zone, putting them into a state of high alert. The Jedi, who had intended to enter quietly and resolve the conflict, were forced to fight their way through hundreds of Ruurian warriors and were forced to kill them in self defence, which prompted the Tiss’Sharl and some of their soldiers to turn on them. Backed into a corner, the Jedi had no choice and murdered hundreds of Ruurians who were simply defending their home, and they couldn’t even prevent the Snivvian leader from detonating a bomb which killed even more people. The Ruurian Massacre was a massive embarrassment for the Republic, leading to a rise in anti Jedi sentiment and desire for emancipation from the Republic, and best of all some began to call for the Republic to disband the Jedi Order. Gean was delighted with her machinations, and went to report to her master. Gravid however was horrified about what she had done, and realised that if the Sith were to come to power, massacres and chaos would follow, and so he resolved to end the Sith threat.

Realising he had failed at every turn to make Gean embrace the light, he resolved to act and destroy the Sith for the good of galaxy. While Gean meditated on her next move, he activated the force fields of the fortress and began turning the various Sith networks into the authorities, destroying them piecemeal. Having tried and failed to amalgamate both Jedi and Sith teachings, he, in his delirious state, believed he was the new Sith’ari, and that he had to fashion a new order from the ashes of the old. He began to destroy the Sith knowledge they had accumulated, and began trying to contact Coruscant, in order to inform the Jedi that the Sith still existed, and hand him and his apprentice over to them. Now totally insane, Gean sensed his actions when he destroyed the holocron of Belia Darzu and she quickly rushed into action, and as she fought her way through the forcefields, she watched as he destroyed more and more Sith lore. Enraged, she finally broke through, confronting her thoroughly insane master. Having turned to the light side, he made an effort to redeem her, which she spat on, proclaiming her master a fool and a traitor and exiled him from the Sith. Engaging him in a deadly duel as he waited to be put through to the Council on Coruscant, she gave in fully to her rage, and his weak alignment to the light was no match as she beat him back. However, in an effort to prove the light superior, he briefly gained the upper hand, and severely maimed his apprentice just as the call started to connect. His fallen apprentice, stimulated by fury at his treason, unleashed the full power of the dark side, draining his power, immolating him with lightning and crushing his body before cleaving his body into parts, and ended the call just before a Jedi answered.

Furious and grievously wounded, Gean was then attended to by droids, who gave her prosthetics to replace her wounds and allowed her to take stock of all her master had done. He had destroyed many Sith teachings, and what was more, he had effectively crippled the various networks that the Sith had spent centuries building up. He had also written his own corrupt teachings and had added his thoughts to writings of previous Sith, and had also donated large chunks of the Sith fortune to charities and even revealed corrupt senators who served the Sith. Devastated by this turn of events, and the loss of so many teachings that she prized, and fearful of her future as she was now the sole Sith, she realised that the duel with her master had considerably shortened her lifespan, and now she had the responsibility to rebuild the Sith, retake control of the grand plan, find an apprentice and ensure their survival all while she still felt like the apprentice while coming to terms with her own, decreased life span.

Her mind whirling in despair and in pain, as she drifted in and out of consciousness beside her masters charred remains, she was then visited. Darth Bane, Zannah, Cognus, Taral and others appeared before her, and gave her their encouragement, applauding her actions and telling her how to proceed. Bane himself talked to her and told her she was the heir to his legacy, and with the backing of her predecessors, she rallied herself, awakening from her drugged stupor and began planning to remake the Sith, and retake the initiative.

Her first move was to evacuate Jaguada, and, in order to remove herself from any possible light side taint, she evacuated to Ziost, relying on the ancient dark power there to further boost her power. Building a mansion come fortress on the planet, she bought a legion of droids to protect the Sith artefacts and teachings at all times, and immediately set out trying to rebuild lost contacts, concerning herself primarily with finding Sith lore to replace that which Gravid had destroyed. Survival was now her main aim, and she believed the Sith couldn’t survive without the knowledge to pass on to the next generation. While doing this, she also had to try and rebuild their networks, while dealing with unwanted Republic attention. The exposure of their networks had attracted the attention of the Jedi, who were curious as to who would be behind these networks. A Togruta Jedi sentinel by the name of Fargo Asklaan joined forces with a group of bounty hunters and Antarian rangers who were all determined to discover the truth behind these events, and Gean now had to deal with the threat of exposure as well as everything else. Unable to act for fear of alerting the Jedi, Gean travelled to Anzat, and came to the temple of the assassins who were trained on the planet. She hand picked the assassin she wanted to use, and he after some effort, killed those looking for her, making it seem like an accident, and she was again in the clear.

Now free to continue, she slowly began to rebuild the Sith finances, and actually employed the prophets of the dark side to help her with investments so she could make the money back quickly. While a pain staking process, Gean did quickly begin to repair the damage done by the Sith finances, which in turn allowed her to start creating new networks which she could use to repair and rebuild her network and influence across the galaxy. However, the resurgence of one particular network caught the eye of the apprentice of the Jedi she had had killed, as they had been alone in their suspicion that someone had ordered the death of his master. Joining forces with a disgraced Antarian ranger, the apprentice, a Koorivar named Yarrik Sneeiv, began to investigate the network, and found one of the resurgent ones. Dismantling it, the leader of the network contacted Gean as the two of them made their way through, and alerted her just before the Jedi found them. Furious, Gean once more hired the Anzati she had hired before, and he lured the two into a trap and killed the two of them, and it was made to look like it was someone settling a score with the ranger who had gotten the Jedi by accident. Barely avoiding exposure, Gean was forced to shut down several of her new networks and move others, setting the Sith back even more.

With the networks in the wind as she moved or hid them to try and keep them from Republic and Jedi view, she was increasingly angered by the fact that the Republic was regaining the initiative, and the free zone was beginning to crumble without Sith support, despite the various things that were standing in its favour. Her finances were still not repaired either, limiting her effectiveness and furthermore, the Jedi were looking far too closely at any Sith fetishists, believing cults of various sorts were behind the recent troubles, so she couldn’t acquire Sith knowledge without attracting suspicion. Corellia’s independence movement was also flagging, and the weapons build ups in the outer rim had been undermined by Gravid, and the guilds had had legislation passed against them which had limited their effectiveness while Gean was otherwise occupied. Fearing she would indeed be the last Sith, she knew she had to act quickly, and to her delight, the Force provided.

The Republic had been getting bolder, trying to impose themselves in the free zone and on Corellia. Corellia’s independence faction was lingering behind, and the pro Republic faction was gaining momentum. In unison, the free zone was also lingering, and Gean saw a way to bring both of them back to the forefront. She once more hired the Anzati assassin, and paid him a larger sum than usual to lure the heads of the independence movements and the Corellian government into a trap. Having the Etti invite them both to a meeting, she also had them request Jedi mediation, in order to negotiate a possible return to the Republic. The Jedi agreed, and the Master of the Order, Yoda, sent a Yarkora Council member, Scerchet Scthugard, to settle the dispute. The group were to meet at a space station in the Corporate Sector and they travelled there for the negotiations. Gean however had learned that the Republic was planning to arrest the leaders of the Corellian independence movement, and if necessary the leader of Etti Iv, and had assembled a task force, which would allow the pro Republic Corellian to return home and retake control. The Jedi were unaware, and she planned to make the most of it. The meeting went ahead, and during a recess, the assassin struck, and killed one of the two independence leaders. This caused an uproar and the Jedi turned her attention to discovering the truth of what had happened, stalling the negotiations. Gean then travelled to the station herself, preparing to act. The Anzat assassin had framed it perfectly, and the Jedi had no choice but to conclude that the Republic had organised the assassination. This stiffened the resolve of the remaining dissenters, and even the pro Republic leader of Corellia was shocked. The Jedi, sensing something amiss, asked for more time, and planned to expose the truth. She hunted down the Anzat, who had infiltrated the independent Corellians security team. Chasing him down and cornering him, she demanded to know who he was working for, and began to use the Force to try and get answers. It was in that moment that Gean, her presence cloaked, killed the Yarkora and blasted her out the airlock. She then used the Jedi comm to send a transmission that brought the Republic task force to the station. The independent leader, believing they had been lured into a trap and that they were betrayed, then killed the Corellian president, and the Etti leader condemned the Republic. Claiming it had been a trap, the Etti and Corellians summoned their forces to the neutral zone and fought off the Republic task force, while Gean escaped with the Anzati assassin.

The fallout was immense. The presence of the task force itself made it look like the Republic had always planned to strike the leaders of these factions, and as a result, the free zone’s resolve was hardened, and using the tyranny of the Republic and Jedi as a rallying cry, they rallied their people to their cause once again, condemning the Republic. The Jedi claimed ignorance, but anti Jedi sentiment was still strong and was strengthened, believing the Jedi were planning to help in a Republic led coup to restore their power on these worlds. The rapidly expanding Corellian movement garnered more support and the independence leader became the new leader of the government, forming a strong friendship with the free zone. With simple tricks, coincidences and manipulations, Gean had revitalised the Sith plot, and had reinvigorated anti Republic resentment and anti Jedi sentiment. Citing the Republic as an unbending tyranny many more worlds began to consider their departure as calls to disband the Jedi rose, as Gean had predicted, and even better the gazes of both bodies were then distracted by other concerns as a result of the fallout. And what was more, the Anzat assassin then became her apprentice, becoming Darth Anthema.

Despite her crippled abilities and reduced life span, by simply fanning the embers, Gean ensured the survival of the Sith plan. She had recruited a new apprentice, and had evaded exposure to the Jedi. She had to a large extent rebuilt the Sith fortune, and had rebuilt several of the Sith networks, but she still knew there was much work to be done. Focusing on rebuilding the Sith, Gean kept half an eye on the galaxy while training Anthema, using him to further undermine the Jedi and the Republic when she could, hardening the resolve of those she planned to use to destroy the government and rebuild it in the Sith image. She stoked resentment slowly on many frontier worlds, including financing a workers revolt on Apatros and other places, which once more sucked the Republic and the Jedi in to a moral dilemma, as they had to support Outer Rim Oreworks even though they disagreed with their practices. When a Jedi was killed in a miner’s revolt, the Republic withdrew their support, claiming that ORO had to give the miners what they wanted. When they refused, the various worlds devolved into civil unrest, for which the Republic and Jedi were blamed, and in the end, the Republic nationalised the company and reduced ORO, giving the miners what they wanted and making them look weak.

All the while, she sent her apprentice to secure Sith teachings, holocrons and artefacts that she could find while furthering his training, indoctrinating him with the rule of two and the points she laid down for victory. She gave him several commands that must be followed when he assumed leadership of the order. One- rebuild the Sith fortunes. Two- rebuild the information networks of the Sith. Three-gather as many Sith artefacts and teachings as possible. Four- build relationships with beings that further the Sith imperative. Five- further the Grand Plan. Six- find an apprentice and continue the Rule of Two. Having hardwired these into his brain, Gean was confident her apprentice would be a worthy successor. He served her for many years, and it was only when her prosthetics began to fail that he decided to make his move. One day, his master was meditating on the future of the plan, and sneaking in like a shadow, he drained her of her soup, and left her lifeless body on the floor, assuming mastery of the Sith

****

** Darth Anthema **

Species: Anzati male

Birth Name: Lyrrik Rell  
Reign: 551 BBY-545 BBY, 545 BBY-538 BBY  
Info: Formerly an Anzati assassin, he was hired following the Sith’s brush with exposure when Darth Gravid lost his mind and revealed the Sith networks to the galaxy’s authorities. With Jedi and Antarian rangers looking for evidence that the Sith still existed, Darth Gean couldn’t act and feared the Sith would end with her. As such she instead hired the Anzati assassin to help throw the Jedi off her trail, and killing them and making it look like an accident, he threw them off the trail, allowing Gean to rebuild her power base once again. However the former apprentice of the Jedi who was killed then began to investigate a resurgent network, and Gean was forced to once again hire the same assassin in order to throw them off the scent. This succeeded, and Gean continued trying to repair the damage Gravid had caused to the Sith. Realising the plan to shatter the Republic was losing ground, she once again hired the assassin, luring representatives from the Republic, Corellia and the Free Zone to a meeting. The assassin then sabotaged the meeting, resulting in a massive crisis for the Republic, and Gean took the assassin as her apprentice in order to protect him from Jedi reprisals, and named him Darth Anthema

Gean spent her time hardwiring the rule of two into her apprentice’s brain. Knowing that her time was short, she focused on rebuilding the networks and resources of the Sith while continuing to forward the Grand Plan, while Anthema was tasked with securing stores of Sith knowledge and teaching to replace those lost when Gravid went insane. He was also tasked with recruiting skilled individuals who could be used to forward the plan, and to keep an eye out for any potential spots where the Sith could exploit the situation to the detriment of the Republic. Anthema did this on Alpheridies. Having long held an interest in the Miraluka, Anthema learned of a centennial event that could act as a threat to the Sith. The Foreshadowing gathered together the greatest seers of the species, and Force groups, other Force sensitive species and of course Jedi were all invited to this gathering. While many more had happened during the time since Bane, recent events caused by Gravid made him and his master fear that, in their weakened state, the Sith might be exposed so he travelled to the planet to thwart the ceremony. Perceiving a threat, the Luka Sene and the Jedi began to protect the High Oracle who would lead the ceremony. Anthema couldn’t allow this to happen, and conceived a plan. Knowing the Jedi and their allies would be on their guard, he hijacked a Hutt slave ship, carrying thousands of refugees who were to become slaves in Hutt space. Killing the crew he kept the slaves locked up, and instead headed to Alpheridies. Entering the system just as the Foreshadowing began, he left the ship, issuing the self destruct order as he did. Giving himself just enough time, he used his fighter to get to the planet surface as the transport emerged above the Foreshadowing, where it exploded. The explosion caused panic, but the loss of so much life temporarily blinded the Miraluka. While the Jedi tried to restore order, the Luka Sene escorted the High Oracle away, all of them suffering, and as a result of the ceremony, the Jedi’s abilities were thrown into disarray as they had been melded with the seers at the time. This gave Anthema the chance he needed, and when the Oracle was left alone when her bodyguards rushed to check the security which he had triggered as a ruse, he killed her, draining her soup and stealing away, leaving the Foreshadowing in crisis and the event was cancelled, though not without suspicion. However, due to his study of the Miraluka, Anthema knew they would stall any attempts at an investigation as they would see it as an insult to the dead who hadn’t foreseen the calamity, and reluctantly the Jedi were forced to let the matter go. Gean was very pleased with his actions, and he sensed that his time was coming.

Gean, knowing her own life wouldn’t last as long as she had hoped, gave Anthema several orders to follow when he assumed control of the Sith. These were: One- rebuild the Sith fortunes. Two- rebuild the information networks of the Sith. Three-gather as many Sith artefacts and teachings as possible. Four- build relationships with beings that further the Sith imperative. Five- further the Grand Plan. Six- find an apprentice and continue the Rule of Two. Anthema took these to heart and carried them out religiously, all the while noticing that his master’s reflexes were getting slower and her prosthetics were weakening her. While she lay in meditation, he attacked, draining her of her soup and her power and proclaiming himself the master

Anthema took his masters orders to heart, and his early reign as master was spent in complete secrecy and silence, rebuilding the faculties of the Sith which had been so squandered by his predecessors. His first order of business was to relocate to a more central location, Gean had used Ziost in order to strengthen herself, but he had no use for such a thing. Instead, he relocated to Anzat, taking a private residence in the snowy wastelands, where he was linked up to the galaxy. From there, he formulated alliances with various assassins guilds and bounty hunter chapters, along with keeping an eye on any potential threats, using a Sith oracle stone that he had recovered for Gean to keep an eye on the galaxy. It was during that time that he noticed a fallen Quarren Jedi by the name of Voshta Santesh. Keeping her in mind, he built up his networks, using the oracle stone to dedicate his times to act, and built upon Gean’s success, rebuilding the fortunes of the Sith and then using them to further construct the Sith information and data networks. He frequently left Anzat, liberating collections of Sith lore from collectors and assuming it for himself, rebuilding their resources as quietly and quickly as he could. Anthema was a great force for stabilising the Sith, and focused less on the Grand Plan and more on rebuilding the Sith following the damage that Gravid had done to them. He made deals with Hutts, senators, warriors and whoever else may suit his ends, but by and large avoided a public persona, preferring to remain the enigmatic and eccentric oddity that he was believed to be. Many of the networks and allies of the Sith were rebuilt during his time, in a slow and gradual process that he made certain didn’t trip any alarms within the Republic.

While his networks began to bear fruit, he turned his attention to the matter of his apprentice, and believed that Voshta Santesh would be an ideal candidate. To this end, he sought to entrap her in the situation developing on Lamaredd. ORO had illegally claimed the planet, ignoring the fact that there was a sentient species who lived on the world. The administrator used illegal methods and hence gathered himself a small army of aquatic species to use as workers when they were little more than slaves. As a result of their living conditions, the poor treatment and the variety of species interspecies violence was common, which Anthema was keen to promote. Santesh came to the planet, seeking to begin a new life, but upon her arrival on the world she realised the situation that was on the planet. Disgusted with the actions of ORO, which was now owned by the Republic, Santesh tried to negotiate better conditions with Hugo Bartyn, who ignored her and then used his security forces to force her into the same indentured slavery as other members of her species. Anthema then travelled to Lamaredd in order to claim Santesh. He first appeared to take pity on her, and forced Bartyn to give better conditions to the slaves. Bartyn tried to take action against both Anthema and Santesh, resenting their interference in his planet and business. Santesh protected them, and the two fled, Anthema giving no indication as to what he was. He then took her off the planet promising his assistance in helping the people who had been deceived into going to Lamaredd.

Santesh worked with Anthema, trying to negotiate better conditions for the indentured workers on the planet. Anthema slowly began the process of trying to turn her to the dark side, realising that her past as a Jedi meant that he had to be more careful than he usually would be. With Anthemas help Santesh began to negotiate with Bartyn, but while he appeared to be on her side he was also guiding Bartyn on how to defeat her at every turn. After weeks of stalemate, Santesh returned to Anthema and was close to giving in to her anger as she was making no progress. Infuriated, she began to ponder doing something more drastic which Anthema encouraged, but he overplayed his hand, and she realised too soon that he was trying to turn her to the dark side. Realising what he was, and connecting his existence with the fallout of Gravid’s actions, she confronted him, and a livid Anthema was forced to kill her in a duel, setting him back to the drawing board.

With no apprentice forthcoming, Anthema began to consider how best to preserve the Sith legacy, as there was still a great deal to be done to rebuild the damage Gravid had done. Lamaredd was trundling along itself but he had to do more in order to advance the aims of the Sith and the Grand Plan, but if his gaze was occupied finding a new apprentice he couldn’t keep up the imperative in the free zone or in the Corellian sector. In his studies and attempts to protect the future of the Sith by triplicating written texts and dispersing them to safehouses, he came across the mention of a hand, and realised that by having a skilled hand could allow him to continue to preserve the Sith legacy. As a result he decided to forestall the look for an apprentice, and instead looked for a hand who he could use as an errand boy to carry out parts of the task to free him to focus on the Grand Plan and to stimulate the developing situations to bring about the end of the Republic. In the spaceport on Anzat, he encountered a Dug assassin, who had a substantial amount of Force potential. After sending him on a few assassination, kidnap and sabotage missions, Anthema revealed himself to be a Sith and offered the Dug the position of his hand

Anthema taught the Dug, who took the name Haemerro to show that he had moved on from his previous life. Anthema taught him the basic principles of the Rule of Two, and the basic premise of the Grand Plan. Haemerro was confused, as other than the mere basics, Anthema didn’t teach him any more information and instead he turned his attention towards the Grand Plan and protecting the Sith legacy. This continued for months, with Anthema using Haemerro as little more than a glorified spy and assassin, who was furthering the Grand Plan but wasn’t even being clued in to the reasoning behind all of the missions his master made him undertake. While he was short-changing Haemerro’s training, Anthema continued to advance the aims of the Grand Plan, and used Haemerro to remove obstacles within the Corellian sector and in the free zone, along with using him to get rid of problematic senators and the occasional Jedi or judicial who were offering the possibility of thwarting Anthema’s plans. Haemerro however was growing increasingly belligerent under Anthema’s training, as he was given no reason and he could tell that there were things about the Force he wasn’t being told. With Anthema focusing on the brewing situation in the free zone and elsewhere, Haemerro began to study the Sith knowledge that his master had in secret. Becoming increasingly anxious by his master’s actions as he studied holocrons and teachings of various previous Sith, Haemerro began to believe that, like Gean before him, he was going to have to take action to save the Sith from the master.

Anthema had been scouring the galaxy for a new apprentice, and believed that he had identified one, who fortunately, was becoming a leading advocate of the free zone, and he intended to make him his apprentice, and prepared to kill Haemerro. Seeing a chance to test his would be new apprentices commitment to the Sith, he departed in his shuttle, bidding farewell to his hand knowing that the next time they encountered each other he would be killed. Haemerro watched as his master left to gain his new apprentice. Anthema then noticed a beeping noise, and discovered too late that his hand, who he had convinced was his apprentice and always underestimated, had planted a bomb, to save the Sith and also to end his master’s suspected treachery as Haemerro had come to believe his master was trying to replace him. The bomb then exploded, killing Anthema and destroying the shuttle, and a very unprepared Haemerro assumed mastery of the Sith.

****

** Darth Haemerro **

Species: Dug male

Birth name: Varovoorto  
Reign: 540 BBY-538 BBY, 538 BBY-500 BBY  
Info: An assassin and gun for hire, Haemerro was a down on his luck assassin who made a pitstop on Anzat on his way towards Tatooine to try and find a job with the Hutts. However, by this time Darth Anthema had elected to choose a hand to carry out the tasks that he could not, to allow him to focus on getting the Grand Plan back on track and to focus on finding a new apprentice after his efforts to turn the fallen Quarren Jedi Santesh to his side had fallen through. After seeing Haemerro kill a target for a local mob boss with expert precision, Anthema approached the Dug with an offer to make him his apprentice, while only intending to make him his hand, an offer which the Dug accepted.

As Anthema’s hand, Haemerro was given a very basic training in the ways of the Sith. The ways of the Rule of Two were explained to him, and he was taught the ability to use the Force and was also begrudgingly taught Ataru by his master, who didn’t wish to waste too much time on a minion who he eventually intended to replace, however to keep Haemerro’s loyalty he carried out the training. He kept the teachings of previous Sith from him, telling his hand that he would teach him everything in due course, which Haemerro took in good faith originally. Haemerro’s apprenticeship consisted of carrying out missions and errands for his master, with little to no explanation being given, and Haemerro began to wonder about the uneven nature of their relationship. Despite this, he was a useful tool to Anthema, carrying out assassinations, inciting uprisings, performing kidnappings, committing sabotage and generally contributing to his master’s plan and making the situation devolve for the Republic and the Jedi. However while he was assured by his master that these were contributing to the Grand Plan, Anthema never explained any further, and during missions, he simply allowed Haemerro to continue his saber training, never training him any further than he already had been, and never revealing his plans more than was necessary, knowing as he did that he intended to remove his hand and replace him with a genuine apprentice. One night while Anthema schemed to incite the beginnings of an arms debate in the Republic, Haemerro seized his chance and broke into his master’s records and his store of Sith knowledge. When there, after consulting the holocron of Darth Gean, he began to fear that his master was a threat to the Sith and began to plot to remove him. While Haemerro did suspect that his master was using his network of his spies to try and locate a new apprentice, Haemerro, who had become accustomed to his life as a Sith, was determined not to allow himself to be replaced. When his master announced that he was leaving their fortress on Anzat in order to secure a vital resource, Haemerro seized his chance and planted a bomb on his master’s shuttle. Bidding his master farewell, he watched as Anthema took off, and when in the air, the bomb exploded, taking out the master and leaving a woefully undertrained and unprepared Haemerro as the sole Sith Lord.

With Anthema now dead, Haemerro returned to his master’s stockpiled Sith resources, where he was confronted by the avatars of the remaining holocron guardians, including Bane, Taral and Gean. While Bane and Zannah berated him, Gean defended the Dug and insisted that the fault was not with Haemerro but was rather with Anthema for glorifying a means to an end and not an end in and of himself. Haemerro then began to study Sith history, becoming more versed in Sith matters, however due to the incomplete nature of his training, and despite the help of the holocrons, he remained incomplete. With no guidance, Haemerro merely focused his attention on improving his saber skills, to the despair of the former Sith who disavowed him and proclaimed that he was no longer a Sith. Finding various teachings and concepts difficult to grasp, Haemerro believed he had indeed doomed the Sith. Despite his lack of understanding, and the way Anthema had diddled his training, Haemerro was loyal to the Sith and wished for them to succeed, but lacked the power, skill and cunning to secure this himself.

In addition to that, as he was merely used as a pawn by Anthema, Haemerro had little to no knowledge of what he should do in order to further the Grand Plan. He had Anthema’s notes and writings, but hadn’t the grasp of politics, subtlety or strategy in order to make any use of the information. He offset this however, by immersing himself in the dark side. Having moved off of the fortress on Anzat, he set himself up in a small compound on Dxun, the nature of the moon appealing to him, and it was in periods of slaughter of the vicious native animals that the dark side spoke to him the most, and by so doing he was able to continue his assassinations of key people, though he had little understanding of what their deaths would cause, but he knew that the dark side was allowing him to advance the plans of the Sith.

However, while he was content to do this, he realised that he was no true Sith Lord. Rather than become depressed and despondent, he instead used the various networks of the Sith (who were getting more rebellious as they sensed that the hand at the tiller was in over his head) to locate other people who might know of the Sith. And by so doing, the Force provided for the Sith and saved them from fading into obscurity.

The resurrected network that Gean had once been part of reported back that one of the foremost academics of Sith history was on Alderaan and was going to be running a series of lectures for the public as well as her students. Leaving Dxun in his ship, Haemerro accumulated all of the knowledge of the Sith and went to attend the lecture. Once there, he discovered an Ithorian woman who it was clear revered the Sith was giving the lectures, and was considerably powerful within the Force. Hearing her talk, Haemerro began to understand the Sith more. For weeks he attended her lectures, including sneaking into the ones where she was teaching her actual students and as a result, his knowledge of the Sith continued to expand. After one class, the woman called him forward and challenged him on his constant presence in her lectures. It was then that Haemerro elected to tell her the truth and revealed himself as the Dark Lord of the Sith. The woman was riveted, and Haemerro told her the basic history of the Sith since Bane. Intrigued to know more of the Sith, and delighted to finally be given a chance to learn more of the field to which she had dedicated herself, she offered herself as a hand to Haemerro, believing he had no use for an academic with a fetish for Sith history. Haemerro however, realising that Anthema using him as a hand had gotten the Sith into this mess, informed her of her powerful affinity for the Force and took her as his apprentice, naming her Darth Toxis.

The two then began their new working relationship, with Haemerro moving into her accommodation as her roommate, moving all the knowledge and teachings of the Sith in with her. With Toxis grasp of the Sith, she and he entered not an apprenticeship but a partnership. Haemerro, who was a master of the lightsaber, taught her how to use the saber, and she began to focus her attention on learning Niman. And with her keen, analytical mind put to the task, she quickly absorbed all the Sith knowledge she could find, growing in strength and power. The two worked together, with Toxis helping her master grasp the tenets of the Sith and the teachings of previous Sith, and the two of them together began to make sense of Anthema’s plans and schemes. With that, the two Sith then surged forward, with a new understanding of the Sith and of the Grand Plan. In addition, Haemerro called the various Sith avatars forward, and impressed with Toxis, Bane reversed the decision and named him a Dark Lord once again, and Toxis was also acknowledged as the true successor to the Sith lineage. The two Sith joined forces, and Toxis assumed responsibility for the Grand Plan, advancing that while Haemerro returned to the role he had before, acting as the agent who advanced the plans while she concocted them herself.

Toxis had a long apprenticeship, but with their partnership, the two of them reached new levels of cunning, with Toxis taking the reins and directing the future of the Grand Plan. Thirty two years later, she asked her master to assassinate the leader of the pro intervention faction in the senate who wished to bring an end to the troubles with Corellia and the free zone. Haemerro did so, but Republic security and the Jedi were tipped off, and Haemerro was forced onto the run. As he didn’t take his lightsaber on his assassinations, there was nothing to tie him to the Sith. Eventually finding himself cornered on a rooftop, he looked up to see Toxis watching from a passing speeder, and realised that she was the one who had betrayed him. He was then shot by the security forces and his body plummeted into the chasms of Coruscant, and with that Toxis became the sole Dark Lord of the Sith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now we are halfway through the tales of the Sith of the Rule of Two  
> Darth Toxis has now assumed the throne, and her intention is to rebuild much of their former strength and stability
> 
> Please kudos and comment!


	4. Reversion to the Mean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sith plan is reformulated, as various Sith come and go, though once more there are...inconsistencies within the Grand Plan, that could yet spell doom for the Sith Order as we move closer to the final era of the Sith

Order of the Sith Lords

****

** Reversion to the Mean **

** Darth Toxis **

Species: Ithorian female

Birth name: Seahn Habat  
Reign: 532 BBY-500 BBY, 500 BBY-408 BBY  
Info: An academic, Toxis had been teaching young minds about the history of the Sith for over fifteen years before she was found by Darth Haemerro. Fascinated by the Sith, she had been teaching their history and had long wished to be one, believing she was meant for more than just teaching about the Sith, but the disappearance of the Sith five hundred years before had made her believe she would never fulfil her dreams. As such, instead she dedicated herself to educating young minds and convincing them of the benefits of the Sith and their teachings.

That changed when Darth Haemerro, looking for an apprentice, came across her. Having been short changed in his training by his master, he was not looking for a hand, and was instead looking for an apprentice. Sneaking into her lectures, Toxis unwittingly taught him many things about the Sith, and after being challenged on his frequent presence in her classes, he revealed himself to be a Sith Lord to her. Delighted that her destiny was finally coming true, Toxis pledged to serve him in any way, and Haemerro named her his apprentice, taking the name of Darth Toxis.

Toxis and Haemerro worked as a long partnership, with Haemerro teaching her about combat, particularly about Niman which she used as her chosen saber form, and about the Sith imperative for the last five hundred years, and she taught him patience and brought her skill, knowledge and cunning to the table. They were more of a partnership than a traditional master and student, and in time it became clear that it was Toxis who was furthering the aims of the Grand Plan. However, over her long apprenticeship, and learning from her master about the damage that Darth Gravid and Anthema had intentionally done to the Rule of Two, Toxis began to consider that there was a flaw in the plan. The Sith imperative had been intended to last a thousand years, but events had transpired more quickly than had been anticipated. That combined with Sith arrogance and sheer dumb luck, had left the Sith able to strike five hundred years before they had originally anticipated. However, the damage that Gravid had inflicted upon the Sith had been catastrophic, but Gean and her successors had still tried to follow on as though nothing had happened. One night, while her master slept, Toxis consulted the holocrons, and called forth the avatars, and finally uttered what she had long ago came to suspect: that the Sith were in no fit state to usurp control of the galaxy, destroy the Republic and annihilate the Jedi. They were unprepared, the Jedi were still too numerous, and they had no one to capitalise on the situation that the fruition of the plan would bring about. The various former Sith consulted one another, and in the end agreed with Toxis and her beliefs. And with their support, Toxis now had one job: to end the Sith imperative and restore it to the original, millennia long plan.

Toxis realised that the Sith plan was now currently tied up in the person of Darth Haemerro. As a result, Toxis came to the conclusion that her master had to be removed in order for the Sith to be saved. To this end, Toxis realised that she could kill two birds with one stone. The pro-intervention leader in the senate was encouraging the Republic to intervene in the chaos that marred Corellia, the outer rim and the free trade zone, none of which would suit her ends. If the plans laid down by her predecessors were to be removed safely and cleanly, only the Sith could be behind their dismantling, and this senator, should he succeed, would most likely be appointed chancellor in the next election, which in turn could easily expose the Sith to the eyes of the Republic, as there were a few who remained suspicious following the efforts of Gravid to sabotage the Sith. As a result, Toxis realised what she had to do. Convincing her master that he had to be removed, she asked Haemerro to assassinate the interventionist in order to defend the Sith’s interests in the Grand Plan. Haemerro agreed to do so, travelling to Coruscant. He easily assassinated the senator, but after leaving the building, he was suddenly swarmed by Republic security and Jedi. Trapped, and without his lightsaber which he never took on missions, he was pursued across the rooftops o Coruscant, and was eventually cornered on the top of the Hotel Manarai. He happened to look up, and saw Toxis pass over in a speeder. She gave a last salute as the Republic forces shot her master and sent his body plummeting into the chasms of Coruscant. With her master now removed as an obstacle, Toxis was now the only Sith and it was now up to her to clear up the mess that had been caused by the Sith overplaying their hands, and their actions, particularly those of Gravid and to a lesser extent, Anthema.

In order to undo the Sith’s plans, Toxis realised she had three main places where she had to act. One, she had to remove the various paramilitary groups and the weapons stockpiles in the outer rim. Two, she had to bring a lasting conclusion to the Corellian problem. And three, she had to bring an end to the trouble being caused by the free trade zone. She also had to do this without attracting the attention of the Jedi and the Republic.

To this end, she manipulated tensions in the core worlds. With the death of the interventionist, there was chaos in regards to the course of action about Corellia. Toxis used her various networks to begin moving the various arms she had collected from the outer rim into the core worlds, realising she had to walk a fine line to make sure no one trigger happy precipitated a war that she wasn’t prepared for the galaxy to fight. To her delight, she was able to use her skills at manipulation to tip Botor and Dawferim into a war, beginning a centuries long feud with her action. With this conflict now attracting Republic attention, she steadily began selling the stockpiled weapons to the warring parties, beginning to whittle down her stockpiles. She also had several paramilitary groups get involved and then sold them out to the other side, resulting in the destruction of several of these groups.

However, there were still plenty of groups in the outer rim. Hiring several out to the Hutts, she contacted Jabba the Hutt, and revealed what she was without actually naming it, and offered him the opportunity to make a lot of money. With her guidance, Jabba created a wargame tournament that raised millions for the Hutts, and using the paramilitary groups as their pawns, the Hutts turned it into a very successful series of games, and by the end of it, and combined with the various conflicts that Toxis was stimulating, the groups and stockpiles were soon whittled down to a much more manageable level. She did however retain several of the more skilled groups in case she should have a use for them later on.

Other avenues to remove the stockpiled troops and weapons presented themselves with attempts at colonisation. Toxis guided the founding of the Federation of the Double Worlds, and sold many weapons to them to protect them from the increasingly belligerent Corellia, Selonia and Drall. She also sent weapons to the newly colonised Teyr, making a vast amount of money off of the sale of the weapons, and over the course of several years, Toxis brought the situation in the outer rim back down to manageable levels.

All through this time, she was guiding Corellia and the free trade zone towards an end, which would bring the threat they posed to the Sith imperative to an end. However, her agents discovered that Gravid had, during his reign, founded the settlement of a colony on Jandoon. Incensed that there was still a leftover of Gravid’s reign, Toxis travelled to Jandoon. She used the dark side energy on the planet and gave in to the sheer power of the dark side and totally annihilated the colony, leaving absolutely no trace, which left the planet lifeless and led many to claim that it was haunted.

Returning to the wider galaxy, Toxis continued the manipulations that she had been carrying out for the last several years, and under her guidance, the free trade zone rallied under her banner. Having negotiated in secret with the largest corporations in the galaxy, under her guidance, the various corporations headed to the free trade zone, and came together, forming the Corporate Sector Authority. With the heads of large business now heading up the negotiations, the free trade zone became exactly that, and with the corporations now working with the Repuiblic, the tensions within the trade zone quickly diminished as the Republic and corporations focused more on the profit motive. Toxis had defused that particular bomb, but she wrote in her books about how the Corporate Sector could easily be used by Sith further down the line. Refusing to dedicate her time to creating a holocron until she had totally saved the Sith, she wrote everything down in books.

With the situation in the outer rim and the trade zone now stabilised, Toxis only had to deal with Corellia. Tensions were high still between the Republic and Corellia, and Toxis saw a way to bring the Corellian problem to an end. With the high tensions, Toxis, despite her original intentions, actually sought to create a war. Stimulating tensions through her agents on Corellia, she provoked the three worlds into trying to invade the Double Worlds, inciting the independent forces into believing that if they took the two worlds, the Republic would allow them to declare their independence. It would also allow Toxis to get rid of several of her remaining stockpiles. Using her agents to incite the three worlds into a patriotic, pro independence frenzy, and Corellia then led an invasion of Talus and Tralus, who she had also armed with various weapons and had also hired out two of her paramilitaries too. Humiliated in the invasion, and facing more sanctions from the Republic, in their humiliation Corellia attempted to withdraw from the Republic. Despite the humiliation, and the sanctions brought against them for trying to invade the two worlds, Corellia and its surrounding planets finally went to the polls, asking the people if they should leave the Republic. Owing to the lenient terms set by the Republic, and a public frustrated by an uncertain future, the people elected to remain in the Republic. As a compromise, and to bring an end to the civil disorder which had been created by the vote result, Corellia went into Contemplanys Hermi, and with that, Corellia’s threat was now no longer an issue, and Toxis had saved the Sith.

With the three plans now dismantled, Toxis began to slowly reassess the future of the Sith. She knew that patience and taking things slowly were the key, and that it was being too eager that had helped bring the Sith to this point. Now investing in creating a holocron, Toxis laid out her plans to bring the Sith to victory. To this end, she identified Corellia, the outer rim, the trade routes, the Corporate Sector as potential trouble spots which could be used to help bring about the end of the Republic.

For over the next several decades, Toxis kept an eye on various situations, still instigating brush wars and other conflicts to help weaken the Republic, but played a less interfering role than many of her predecessors. The Jedi commissioned the building of an academy ship, the _Chu’unthor_ , during this time, and while she did mark it for future use, she knew the Sith were in no position to sabotage the ship or even take advantage of the fact that it was under construction at all. However, she didn’t stop setting things aside, highlighting people who could be useful and setting aside resources and funds. However her greatest contribution to the continuing role of the Sith was her teachings. Unlike other Sith, she kept up with her previous life, remaining teaching many new generations of students. Subtly teaching them Sith beliefs and techniques, she corrupted many more generations of students, who began parroting her beliefs and spreading them and her anti Republic rhetoric, with many of them becoming academics, businessmen and other positions of influence, who went on to chip away at the power of the Republic, attacking them through their works, their businesses and their opinions, which then allowed Toxis to contact them and use them to further undermine the Republic.

One such student was an Arkanian, who took history as an elective, when he was actually studying medicine. However he soon became hooked on her lectures, as something was calling out to him about her lectures. Seeking help with his thesis, as he was seeking to study the effects of Sith alchemy and how they may be possible to be used in modern medicine, he sought out Toxis, and once he began regularly seeing her, she soon revealed who she truly was and named him her apprentice, Darth Ramage.

Completing his education, Ramage dedicated himself to discovering the effects of medicine, creating a new form of Sith alchemy, while Toxis continued to teach him the ways of the Sith. One such experiment he conducted was on the influence of bota and how it helped benefit the power of the dark side. Upon discovering this, Toxis and Ramage continued to perform more and more experiments, seeking things to increase their power to the dark side. The two Sith also continued to corrupt their students and everyone else they had access to.

Toxis had brought stability to the Sith, had reeled back the Sith plans and had set down the groundwork to bring down the Republic many centuries from now. She was a great reformer and later generations saw her as the saviour of the Sith, who underlined the chaos of the dark times and regained the Sith’s initiative and put them back on track.

After many years helping her apprentice and studying the effects of medicine and various drugs on their connection to the Force and to their connection with the dark side. Toxis also indulged her hobby of horticulture, further assisting her apprentice while subtly corrupting the next generation of some of the most influential people in the galaxy, by teaching at some of the most prestigious universities in the galaxy.

In the final year of his apprenticeship, Ramage sought to understand the effects of bota and pyronium, particularly on the Cephalons who he kept kidnapping and experimenting upon. Toxis disapproved of this, and was standing in the way of Ramage’s experiments. As such, Ramage decided that the time had come to remove his master. Continuing his experiments on Cephalons, his master found out that he was once again carrying out experiments, and attempted to intervene. However, when she confronted her apprentice, she was then trapped in the cell with his numerous test subjects, who he had amped up with the bota from his experiments. Using his command over them, he had them use the Force to set them off, and Toxis was consumed by the Cephalons who had been driven into insanity by Ramage, allowing him to become the true dark lord.

****

** Darth Ramage **

Species: Arkanian male

Birth name: Adonix Alltor  
Reign: 436 BBY-408 BBY, 408 BBY-400 BBY  
Info: A student of Darth Toxis, he studied history as an elective, and when he chose to do his medical research thesis on the role of Sith alchemy and how it could be used in modern medicine, she was appointed to be his mentor. After intensive study, Toxis finally revealed herself to him as the Dark Lord of the Sith, and named him Darth Ramage.

Under the guidance of his master, who treated him like she did every other one of her students, the two embarked upon a journey of discovery, searching for substances that amplified the power of the Force and that of the dark side, which in turn led to the discovery of the uses that bota and pyronium had on their ability to touch the Force and commune with the dark side. Furthermore, Ramage had an unhealthy obsession with Cephalons, and would often hire bounty hunters to capture them and bring them to him in order for him to perform his experiments upon him. Toxis disapproved of this obsession, and as they were such rare creatures she wished to preserve them, particularly in light of their unique connection to the galaxy, but while he would desist when confronted, he would always come back to his experiments upon Cephalons. Reaching the end of her patience, Toxis went to confront her apprentice, and by so doing walked right into his trap, where he outwitted her and fed her to the insane beings.

Now the sole Sith Lord, Ramage continued his experiments, determined to find yet more ways to amplify his power within the Force. His master’s actions had put the Sith back on track, ending the premature Sith imperative, and upon her death he continued to corrupt generations of students, though this time teaching medical science and subtly influencing a new generation of students, subtly convincing them of the rhetoric of the Sith. He remained an academic, becoming a medical researcher, which gave him greater access to the materials he needed to create his experiments and in order to create his holocron, which he used to tell future generations of his discoveries of the power of drugs and materials on the power of the dark side.

It was during this time that Darth Ramage began investigating how the dark side could be used to twist life. Seeking a way to make the Force stronger for the adherents of the dark side, he continually studied Force strong plants and animals, seeking ways to twist them so that they would become more potent and serve the Sith. To that end, he began cannibalising his master’s botany reserves, twisting plants to the will of the Sith and writing down his findings, and also noting the effects that midichlorians would have on any possible attempt to twist life to suit the ends of the Sith, he eventually dismissed his experiments as a waste of time that he could ill afford. Having wasted a great deal of time, and with his actions in the Grand Plan curtailed by his master ending the advanced imperative, Ramage instead turned his attention to finding an apprentice.

However doing so was no mean feat. With the Grand Plan on hold until all the dust settled, he needed an apprentice of a long lived species, who, unlike him, would be more than a caretaker for the Sith legacy. As his master did before him, he searched through the ranks of his students and found them wanting. Giving up on finding a suitable student among the populace, he instead requested a year’s sabbatical and went off into the galaxy, determined to find his apprentice out amongst the stars. It was during this time that he made his great contribution to the Grand Plan, and also happened to find his apprentice in the process.

The Republic was seeking to expand its influence in the Mid Rim, and to that end, it was looking at planets to set up a large Republic base of sorts, which would be a sort of local governmental headquarters for Republic affairs. This was being done in order to help diminish the remaining tensions caused by the mismanagement of the Sith plans between the core and the outer rim. As such, the Republic were seeking a planet which would be fit for such a purpose, however, none of the worlds would consent to become basically a miniature Coruscant. A leading mathematician, a Givin, instead advised the Republic that rather than turning a world into an outpost, they should perhaps build a space station to act as their gateway between the rims. Impressed by this argument, the senate voted to approve the construction of the space station which would be known simply as the Gateway. Seeing a chance to cause havoc for the Republic without overplaying his hand, Ramage diverted his plans of finding an apprentice and got involved in the building process, joining the oversight committee as a prominent academic. It was there that he met the Givin who had originally advised the Republic to go with building a space station, and curious to know his reasoning, Ramage struck up a conversation. The Givin revealed that he only asked them to build a space station because that way, when their economy crashes, which he had done the math to discover was in the offing, it would cause less damage to the various rim worlds economies and lead to a quicker bounce back of the economy than it would if any planets were being settled and used for that purpose. Ramage was intrigued to learn that the Republic economy was going to crash, and began tasking the various Sith networks with first identifying if the Givin was right, and also with setting aside and protecting funds so that any crash would not destroy all of the saving that the Sith had managed to stockpile since the damage Gravid had inflicted upon the order.

Nevertheless the building of the Gateway went ahead as scheduled. However the process was fraught with complications, as it was an open ended contract the company building the station kept adding time and hence money to the estimate of the completion of the project. Inquiries found that improper planning was made when designing the station, resulting in several parts having to be rebuilt at more expense. Working conditions were not safe, and the resulting lawsuits from various trade unions only widened the problem. The completion of the station was pushed further and further back over two years, putting it billions of credits overbudget and behind time. However it was finally completed, two years behind schedule, and the Republic was looking foolish for beginning the contract in the first place, as technological advancements and an increased presence in the mid rim had effectively nullified the original purpose of the station. As the chancellor arrived to officially open the station, Ramage asked the Givin about the credit crash that he had warned about. The Givin assured him it was coming. The chancellor began his speech only to be interrupted and informed that the economy was collapsing, as overborrowing and overproduction of money had resulted in a credit crunch which had crashed the economy. Departing quickly the chancellor finished the speech, pronounced the station open and hurried back to Coruscant. Impressed, Ramage asked how the Givin had known that would happen and it was then that the Givin dropped his wards, allowing Ramage to sense his Force potential for the first time. The Givin revealed that he had (correctly) suspected that Ramage’s agents were the ones increasing the sabotage and miring the project over time. Impressed, Ramage asked why, if he knew about the imminent collapse, he had done nothing to prevent it. The Givin replied that it was too late to save the situation anyway, and that the Republic did not deserve to be saved. Rather impressed, Ramage whisked the Givin away, before his agents finished their job, sabotaged the station and destroyed it, exacerbating an already bad situation.

Recruiting the Givin as his new apprentice, Ramage named him Darth Axiom. The Givin was a master mathematician and had predicted, with help from the Force, that the Republic’s days were numbered. Rather than forestall the inevitable, he was seeking ways in which the galaxy could be improved with a new form of government to replace the Republic, and when apprised of the Grand Plan, he eagerly subjected himself to Ramage and his teachings. An expert mathematician, he could use the Force to help with his ability to write theoretical equations and probabilities, which made him an invaluable weapon. Pleased with his apprentice, Ramage taught Axiom relentlessly for four years, watching as the credit crash crippled the Republic, increased resentment, led to riots in the outlying worlds and led to mass protests across the galaxy as the populace railed against the Republic’s role in the whole affair, particularly when added to the Gateway station debacle. Stimulating the chaos and taking delight in exposing corruption and dodgy deals made throughout the Republic, the two Sith orchestrated a string of sackings from across the Republic government and military as they were all caught up in the fallout of the credit crash. The chancellor and the Jedi were able to offer no explanations that satisfied the people, the guilds and corporations were given greater control over the economy as it was the banks that had caused the mess in the first place, and the Sith continued to stoke civil unrest across the galaxy.

With the galaxy in chaos and the Republic seen as weak, Ramage continued his teaching of Axiom, watching in amusement as the Jedi struggled to find who had destroyed Gateway. It was then that Axiom struck, perceiving that the time had come for him to assume mastery of the Sith. The Jedi were getting alarmingly close to figuring out that the station was sabotaged, and Axiom needed a way to implicate his master without drawing undue attention to the rest of the Sith networks. As such, Axiom exposed Ramage’s role in the disaster and the wider impact he had had on the crash to the Cephalons. Enraged that someone would do such things to their people, they hired several bounty hunters to hunt down Ramage, and sent representatives who helped distract his ability to use the Force to perceive events. While heading to a symposium he was to attend, Axiom, who remained behind, tipped off the Cephalons and they used their influence over the Force to disturb his ability to focus, and with the help of the bounty hunters he was destroyed along with his ship.

****

** Darth Axiom **

Species: Givin male

Birth name: Galvar Isen  
Reign: 404 BBY-400 BBY, 400 BBY-367 BBY, 332 BBY-329 BBY  
Info: Darth Axiom came to the attention of his master during the Gateway station debacle. An excellent mathematician, he was sent by Yag’Dhul’s ruling Calculus to represent their interests. Having used their grasp of maths, probability and theory, which they then applied to their understanding of galactic economics, they foretold the coming credit crash which would have severe economic ramifications for the entire Republic. As such, they sought to offset the damage and hence recommended that the senate build a space station as opposed to building their new base on a planet. This was planned to offset greater financial ruin, however mismanagement at the top of the Republic led to this being a much more costly and long term plan than was originally anticipated. Darth Axiom, before he became a Sith, was one of the front runners of the project and frequently attended senate committees in charge of financing the project, only to be ignored when he told them where and how they could save money. Eventually reaching the end of his tether when poor working conditions led to a strike that delayed the project two months, despite his warning the senate of the easily remedied problem, he reported to the Calculus that he could no longer continue trying to help and washed his hands of the affair, spending his time researching the decline of the Republic over the last five centuries. He began to believe that there was something weak and sick in the Republic, and began investigating everything that had happened, coming to the conclusion that there was no way all of this could have happened without help of some sort, intriguing him enough to keep searching for the truth.

It was during this time that Darth Ramage became aware of the Gateway project. Having been instructed by his master to scale back on large Sith schemes, the Gateway crisis was a perfect way for the Sith to cause yet more havoc for the Republic without causing too much damage and allowing him to focus on other things. Using his agents to exacerbate an already bad situation at Gateway, he helped contribute to the various worker strikes, good shortfalls, and did whatever he could to sabotage the construction of the station, enjoying watching the station spin further and further into debt. Getting himself assigned to the stations oversight board, Ramage met Axiom. Striking up a conversation, Ramage befriended his future apprentice, keen to hear his insight into the problem. Over the weeks, Axiom told him what was wrong with the situation, and that the Republic was heading for a fall anyway, and that the situation at Gateway was just making matters worse. After several meetings, Axiom revealed to Ramage what few knew: the Republic’s economy was about to crash, and that was the reason that they had advocated building a station rather than using a world, as that would send the entire mid rim’s economy into freefall. Intrigued, Ramage began to use his agents to protect Sith investments and ensure that their money was safe. Despite that however, he continued to sabotage Gateway, with the aim of destroying the station as soon as it was completed to make the Republic look even more impotent and incompetent than they already appeared. Two years behind schedule, the station’s original purpose was nullified by various advances in the mid rim but the Republic was determined to make a show of the event. Ramage moved his saboteurs into position and intended to destroy the station as soon as he was off. Seeing Axiom at the reception, he moved over to him just as the chancellor began the ceremony to open the station, and asked about the credit crunch he and the Calculus had predicted. No sooner had the chancellor made his opening remarks, than he was informed that the economy was crashing due to overlending, overborrowing and too many people at the top skimming for themselves, and as a result the economy was in freefall. The chancellor quickly left, and Axiom revealed that this was what he had predicted. Ramage asked how he knew it would happen at just the right time to make the Republic seem even worse, and the Givin dropped his carefully constructed mental thought palace which hid his Force sensitivity from Ramage. Delighted to discover the Givin’s Force sensitivity, he was even more delighted when Axiom revealed that he had known that Ramage was behind the acts of sabotage, and had done nothing, believing the Republic could not be saved and deserved to die. Ramage was pleased, and revealed himself to be a Sith Lord, and offered Axiom the chance to help engineer the destruction of the very system that had allowed the crash to happen. Axiom accepted and took his Sith moniker for the first time, and the two Sith departed the station just as Ramage’s agents destroyed it, plunging the mid rim into chaos and making the economy even more deplorable.

Now a member of the Rule of Two, Axiom eagerly subjugated himself to his master’s teachings. His knowledge of mathematics and his ability to use the Force to accurately predict the future was a great help, and the two Sith continued to stoke the civil unrest that resulted of the credit crash. Axiom got himself into a position to be recruited by the various corporations, acting as an independent arbiter between the group, who they hired to investigate the banks. Axiom then used his investigations to reveal many corrupt senators, businessmen and bankers who had helped create the banking crisis, either wittingly or unwittingly. Axiom exposed a great deal of corruption, and working with his master, who was stimulating events at a grassroots level, they helped create the climate of discontent throughout the Republic, leading to civil unrest, strikes which further deteriorated the economy, and all out riots across the galaxy. Axiom identified those primarily responsible for the credit crash, and identified them publicly, however nothing was done about them, making the Republic seem powerless. Under his master’s urging Axiom took the credit crisis and warped it to suit the ends of the Sith.

With half the senate under investigation, along with the top levels of intergalactic banking and business under review for their less than stellar record over the last few years, Axiom was appointed to a senate oversight committee. Axiom quickly disposed of the leader of the enquiry, and upon his death, Axiom was appointed the leader of the committee. Through his use of the Force and his expertise in maths, he was able to identify the focal point of the credit crash, the Republic minister of finance. Appealing to the chancellor, Axiom was given permission to bring him before the committee. Interrogating the minister, Axiom easily destroyed his arguments, revealing that he had known full well about the state of the economy and had continued to use wilful ignorance to deal with the problem, and had even commenced borrowing himself, putting the entire economy at risk. The minister of finance crumbled under Axiom’s questioning, growing increasingly irrational and revealed that he had known and that he and several others had been skimming as much money and lining their own pockets as possible, and under his questioning, he revealed the names of the others, all high ranking members of the galactic economy and banks. With this, Axiom easily created riots as more and more people protested and demanded that those responsible for the credit crash be punished. In conference with the chancellor, it was revealed that the Jedi were also investigating the finance minister and found nothing untoward. Axiom later let this slip to the press, causing even more resentment and turning the people against the Jedi as well. The beleaguered chancellor was forced to sack the finance minister, order that many bankers be removed, several corporate leaders were toppled and several more were promoted and the power of the corporations increased. In addition the Jedi who had failed to investigate properly were dispersed to various praxeums, and Axiom withdrew from the public sphere.

Ramage was highly impressed with his apprentices actions, and continued his training upon his return to their headquarters on Arkania. He encouraged his apprentice to follow the dictates of the Force when generating his equations and probabilities, which gave Axiom an uncanny ability to predict the future which the Sith could use to their advantage. During this time, Ramage encouraged Axiom to become involved with his experiments, particularly those on Cephalons, who he continued to pay bounty hunters to find. Axiom however felt that experimenting on such creatures was a waste of potential, and began to conspire to use them to effect his takeover. Indoctrinated with the Rule of Two, he was an avid follower, and believed that the master should be killed by the apprentice. Heretically however he believed that when he became the master he should take care so as not to be killed by his apprentice but did begin to plot to murder his master. During the years of his apprenticeship, his master taught him Djem So and Shien, his apprentice becoming proficient in both forms.

Continuing on from the fallout of the credit crash, Axiom and his master proceeded to stimulate a corporate war. With the damage having been caused to the galactic economy, and the power of the corporations having been increased due to the fallout of the economic crisis, Ramage and Axiom decided to further stoke the fire and increase the chances of a corporate war. Ramage employed a pirate band who united several pirate factions into a loose coalition and had them attack one of the smaller galactic corporations. The aggrieved party, Deep Core Mining responded by quickly arming its security force as the Sith had framed the rival corporation of HardOre Inc. While only small players, the two Sith continued to pull strings and the conflict drew the attention of the Commerce Guild. Under the guidance of both Sith, the Commerce Guild ended the conflict by annihilating the two security forces and subsumed both factions into their own conglomerate, profiting richly. However, if the corporations were truly to be the death knell of the Republic work had to be done in order to create a viable alternative to the various guilds already in place. Axiom put this aside, realising that that could be his major contribution to the Grand Plan but in order to do that, he first had to eliminate his master.

The Jedi had been investigating the destruction of Gateway station, and while the investigation had stalled due to the chaos of the credit crash, the Jedi were getting closer to revealing the Sith networks and their role in the delaying and destruction of the station. Ramage took the lead, taking action to throw the Jedi off the scent. Axiom however perceived this as the ideal time to strike. With the Jedi closing in, Axiom contacted the Cephalons and revealed that Ramage had been kidnapping, torturing and experimenting on members of their species for years. Implying to the Cephalons that Ramage was the one behind the destruction of Gateway, he goaded the species into a fury. They hired a small force of bounty hunters and joined them, combining their considerable influence over the Force. The group were tipped off to Ramage’s flight path when he departed Arkania to attend a symposium. Their group ambushed him and Ramage was destroyed by the small fleet that the Cephalons had brought together. Informing the Jedi that Ramage was the reason Gateway was destroyed, the investigation ended and Axiom became the sole Sith lord.

With his master dead, Axiom could now dedicate his time to creating the corporation which would help bring about the fall of the Republic. While the other corporations all had their uses in terms of the grand plan, they were all too big, expansive and greedy, and while, as previous Sith had argued, that could be used to help undermine the Republic, he needed another faction which the Sith could subtly influence the growth of, and which, when the time was right, could help destroy the Republic itself. Realising that corporate greed and mass business was the way to go, he needed an organisation that would touch and possibly consume all the other corporations should the need arise. As a result, in his guise as a mathematician and with the Force guiding his skill in probability to help him, he began to contact the Neimodians, who he foresaw would be the most susceptible to his plans to help the Sith take over the galaxy. In his public guise, Darth Axiom contacted many powerful companies and began to have them start courting the Neimodians, laying the groundwork for the birth of the Trade Federation. However, he couldn’t move too quickly, so as such, he only suggested his ideas to various Neimodians and representatives of other companies such as Baktoid, the Colicoids and Haor Chall without getting them to commit to anything, playing the long game so as not to unite the other corporations or the Republic against him.

The Republic slowly began to recover from the credit crisis, and instead Axiom turned his main focus to the creation of the Trade Federation, sounding out big businesses and banks who could help him set up the corporation. However, his gaze was soon drawn to the planet Ithor. Over half a century ago, Ithorian scientists had accidentally created an entity known as Spore, which was a malevolent being that could absorb any mind into its collective power. For the last several years the Ithorians had tried to contain the creature upon Ithor, but it was now becoming clear that Spore was spiralling out of control. Seeing this, Axiom used his skill in probabilities and his knowledge of the dark side to help manufacture a crisis that would have no choice but to involve the Jedi. For months the Ithorians had been working on a way to keep Spore from attacking their planetary event known as the Time of Meeting. Travelling to Ithor himself however, Axiom intended to sabotage the process. Channelling the dark side, Axiom made contact with Spore’s collective mind. Struggling to remain afloat in the ocean of collective voices that made up the creature, Axiom enraged the entity, provoking it into action. Spore, now enraged and with the Ithorians now unable to even attempt to control it, unleashed itself upon the meet, consuming three herdships and absorbing all life within. Axiom barely escaped the one he was on with his life, just managing to escape before Spore, searching for the one who had hurt it, attacked the herdship. Slightly alarmed at how he had underestimated the creature and in fear of what he had unleashed, Axiom returned to his headquarters on Vortex, where he had moved following his removal of his master, and watched the crisis from afar.

To his delight, the crisis still had its intended effect. The Ithorians could no longer control Spore, and reluctantly appealed to the Jedi for help. A dozen Jedi descended upon Ithor to help them subdue Spore, who in turn consumed the Jedi sent to neutralise it. Pleased, Axiom watched as more Jedi were summoned, and this time, with the help of the Ithorians, who also worked with Neti, Zelosians, Felucians and other species, formed a coalition and were finally able to defeat the creature and entomb it in deep space. Axiom was pleased, he had once more weakened the Jedi, the Republic had taken no action at all which gained them criticism, and there was a very powerful entity out there should the need ever arise in the future for the Sith to use Spore to their advantage.

Axiom calculated that long term unrest would be a great help in bringing down the Republic. To this end, he took great interest in Corellia, which was now ending its long isolation brought on during the reign of Darth Toxis when she had orchestrated the removal of them as pawns of the Sith grand plan. Seeing the Corellian sector as a vital piece of the puzzle, Axiom began to stimulate various isolationist groups, providing them with funds, intelligence and weapons with which they were to fight for Corellia to maintain their independence their isolation, turning the previous Sith uses for the sector on their head. Under his shadowy guidance, these various groups caused chaos across the sector, and led to neighbouring worlds, led by a faction of Duros, beginning to consider putting the sector under blockade and enforcing on them the humiliation that they had escaped last time. While Corellian authorities desperately tried to maintain order, the spectre of Corellian independence and the prospect of another potential conflict with them goaded many in the galaxy into believing the worst, and Axiom continually stimulated the situation, using his public persona as a theoretician and mathematician to give steadfast warnings of what the upstart Corellians could do to the recovering Republic economy and that the ineffectual Republic, which had proved itself unable to deal with the Corellians before, would be unable to stop a war should the Corellians once more restart their nationalist or expansionist tendencies.

Stimulating the situation in the Corellian system, Axiom took personal interest in a highly violent and dangerous Selonian group known as Afarathu. The group was brutal and violent, committing bombings, executions and were pursuing a fanatical agenda. They were ruthlessly hunting down and murdering any Corellian or Drall settlers on the planet, and with Axiom’s help, they began preparing for a coup that would see them usurp control of the planet. While a little more militaristic than he had originally planned, Axiom foresaw great use in this. If Selonia fell to the Afarathu cult, it would severely undermine the end of Corellian isolation, which would in turn weaken the Republic who would be forced to install a peacekeeping force to prevent the genocidal cult from spreading. It could also precipitate a war in the sector, which would draw in the Republic and the Jedi and cause further chaos. In addition, it could lead to a coalition of worlds uniting against Corellia, potentially starting a war with the entire sector, which would further undermine the Republic. It would also weaken the recovering economy, so Axiom saw it as a win win for the Sith. However, this proved to be one of his few miscalculations. One Jedi, Kieran Halcyon, infiltrated and dismantled the entire cult, ending their coup attempt before it started and returning the situation to normal, allowing Corellia to harmlessly re-enter the Republic and end its isolation as without the threat of war, tensions calmed considerably. Annoyed but impressed by the Jedi, he was invited by the minister of finance (who owed his position to Axiom orchestrating the fall of his predecessor) to the official ending of Corellian isolation, where Axiom met Halcyon and shook his hand, vowing not to be undone by the Jedi in future, though did enjoy the Jedi’s company and got his opinion on the many problems currently facing the Jedi and the Republic, which he would then be able to use to his own advantage.

Axiom continued to forward his plans to create what would eventually become the Trade Federation. In order to achieve this more easily, he relocated to Neimodia, and spent a lot of time travelling among the purse worlds. His first goal was to create a merger between the three largest corporations on Neimodia, each of which had branches on the purse worlds and forge them into one larger faction. To begin with, he chose the smallest company, which controlled shipping to Deko Neimodia. At the time, Deko was the richest of the purse worlds, and the company Axiom had calculated would be the best suited to amalgamate the others, while the smallest, controlled the exportation of pylats. He offered his services to the leader, who was seeking to expand his operations, and advised him to strike a deal with Baktoid Armour, to better increase the protection of the very rare birds. The Neimodian in charge of Neimodylat Transport was intrigued by this and did so, ensuring their cornering of that particular market as the most wealthy Neimodians flocked to them to ensure the protection of their rare birds. With Axiom’s guiding hand, the corporation began to thrive and under his guidance bought out several smaller companies, allowing Axiom to begin orchestrating the merger with the other two major corporations of Neimodia. Using the knowledge of his master, Axiom then created a specific virus, unique to the air of Cato Neimodia. When NemTech, the second largest company, saw the success of Neimodylat, they attempted to seize the market and the ludicrous contracts that the smaller company was getting. However, advised by Axiom, the chairman of the company ensured that their transports were heavily protected by Baktoid products. With Baktoid now endorsing them, Neimodylat seemed poised to enter the greatest leagues and directly compete with the two major corporations.

Determined to prevent this, NemTech officials contacted Axiom, who they realised was directly responsible for the rise in their opponents fortunes, and offered him a vast sum of money to defect. Axiom accepted and travelled to Cato Neimodia, and entered the NemTech building. Upon receiving the credits, Axiom deployed the virus which killed the entire board. Returning to Nemoidylat, Axiom informed the chairman of the chaos NemTech was in, and a few weeks later, Neimodylat merged with NemTech, and became Pylat Tech, a powerful consortium controlling exports and imports, along with raw materials and in addition, had significant backing from Baktoid. The remaining largest company, ManaxCorp, was now increasingly threatened by the rise of Pylat Tech. Axiom divined with the Force and his maths skills that by merging with them, nothing would stop the rise of the corporation he desired which would then help forward the Grand Plan in a multitude of ways. Going deep into meditation, he divined the best way to strike at ManaxCorp was to use the other corporations to his advantage. Departing the Neimodia system, Axiom travelled to the other corporations, the Commerce Guild, the Techno Union, the recently created Corporate Alliance, among others, and sought out meetings with their shareholders, and used his mathematical skills to persuade them that investment in Pylat Tech would be a sound decision for the future which would bring them greater profits. Receiving their investments, Pylat Tech surged in popularity and wealth, and Axiom returned to Neimodia to effect the second phase of his plan. Going to Pylat Tech, he and the chairman worked on a plan. They staged a highly public falling out, and Axiom left the company in disgrace, having been accused of profiteering and incompetence. As Axiom planned, Pylat Tech’s earnings suddenly plunged, throwing the company into chaos and the stockholders began trying to back out of the deal. Defecting to ManaxCorp, Axiom had the company invest in Pylat Tech in order to prevent the total collapse of the company, which would in turn take the Neimodians economy along with it. Shoring up the company, ManaxCorp thought they had it made. However Pylat Tech then had a resurgence, their shares rebuilding with Axiom’s ministrations. ManaxCorp now had the enemy within the walls, and Pylat Tech created a surge in earnings, and as predicted the corporations, seeing the advantages, attempted a buyout so they could reap the profits, which ManaxCorp considered accepting. Axiom directed the boardroom struggles, with Pylat Tech declaring that it would not be subject to a buyout, which allowed them to build up the support of the populace and ManaxCorp was forced to refute the buyout, and allowed Pylat Tech to become the dominant force in the company when ManaxCorp’s main representatives were forced to resign in the crisis and with that Pylat Tech was amalgamated into ManaxCorp but retained control of the conglomerate, and they became the Neimodian Federation, setting the groundwork for the Trade Federation. With the three most powerful shipping, industrial, transport and commercial companies now under one heading, and in charge of hundreds of smaller tributaries, the corporation had become one of the richest companies in the galaxy in a matter of months.

With the Neimodians now able to build up their wealth and power independently, Axiom could now turn his attention to the selection of an apprentice. He had been pulling the strings for years in regards to creating the Neimodian Federation, and while he was advancing the Grand Plan, he was now in danger that should anything happen to him. Instructing the powerful Neimodians to continue their plans and build up the wealth, power and forces for later, Axiom found himself on Rodia, where he intended to quickly negotiate a weapons export deal which would give the Federation greater ability to protect themselves and their shareholders. When there however he realised that a Rodian clan war was occurring, and went to investigate. He discovered a clan leader leading his clan into battle against another. Due to planetary tradition, the entire thing was a sporting event and so Axiom watched the conflict with great interest, as the clan leader blazed with the Force. Watching this young Rodian acting like a general, he watched as he led his clan to victory and massacred the enemy clan. Sensing the Rodian feed on the dark side, Axiom began to consider that he may be the true reason, dictated by the Force, for his coming to Rodia. Axiom continued to watch the clan leader, as he executed his warriors who had allowed the enemy clan to break into their lines for failing him and their clan. Impressed, as the spectators dispersed, Axiom sought out the clan leader and introduced himself.

Axiom explained that he represented a vital interest that could do a great deal of service to Rodia, and that he was allied with the Neimodians, and that in exchange for weapons and some hired guns to help protect their investments, his clan could be made the most powerful on the planet, and perhaps become the Great Clan. The Rodian then surprised him and informed him that his clan wont last long anyway, as the clan he had just wiped out was a favourite of the Great Clan and they wouldn’t survive a fight with them, and that they had the backing of the Republic who would wipe them out before allowing them to become Great Clan. Seeing his chance, Axiom offered to employ and relocate his entire clan on the proviso that the Rodian joined him, calculating that this Rodian would be his best bet for an apprentice, and the Rodian agreed.

Upon relocating back to Neimodia and showing the Rodian the operation that he had there, the entire clan was relocated allowing them to escape the reprisals of the Great Clan. Once settled on Neimodia, the Rodian began to ask questions, as to why Axiom had gone to such lengths to create the Neimdoian Federation. It was then that Axiom revealed his identity as the Dark Lord of the Sith, and told the Rodian that he intended to help orchestrate the downfall of the Republic and the Jedi, which the Rodian was also on board with. Having successfully convinced him, the Rodian then became Darth Doctryn and dedicated himself to the Sith.

Axiom found Doctryn to be a more than capable apprentice, and he quickly grasped the use of the dark side of the Force. Quickly grasping the intricacies of Axiom’s schemes, he helped his master remove problematic oppositions to his plans with the Neimodians. Axiom continued to train his apprentice, particularly in the use of Djem So and continued to remove obstacles to the Federation. However with the groundwork laid, he could now turn his attention to other plans that required his attention, specifically the Annoo-Dat.

A warlike and predatory species, the Annoo-Dat were engaged in a fierce civil war on their homeworld of Annoo. Axiom, in his guise as a mathematical scientist, warned that if the war was not ended soon, it would spread to other worlds, prompting the Republic to take action. To complete the illusion, as there was actually little chance of the conflict spreading as the Annoo-Dat were too busy trying to exterminate each other, Doctryn was heading to nearby worlds, inciting interclan war between the local Weequays and the Defel as well, increasing Republic worries. A Jedi task force was sent to negotiate a ceasefire, and two Jedi were killed when negotiations failed, resulting in the Jedi withdrawing from the planet and the conflict on Annoo becoming even bloodier than before, which in turn prompted Doctryn to stimulate the conflicts of Af’El and Sriluur to make them worse too. Axiom calculated that the Annoo-Dat could actually become a potent threat should they escape their world, and intended to make the conflict steadily increase in violence until he was ready to use them. Using Doctryn’s connections back on Rodia, the Annoo-Dat became armoured with increasingly virulent weapons, as did the neighbouring systems, resulting in the Republic having to expend resources to create a blockade in an attempt to prevent the war from igniting more brushfire wars, as Axiom had planned. The presence of the blockade only antagonised the locals however, and many began using the Rodian supplied weapons to wage guerrilla warfare against the Republic forces that were there to keep the peace, pleasing Axiom.

Continuing with Doctryn’s training, it occurred to him that after four years of training, Doctryn would soon be planning to remove Axiom. Being a Givin and mathematical genius, Axiom could not not plan for this, and made several contingencies, should he survive his apprentice’s inevitable attempt to try and kill him. Becoming increasingly certain that Doctryn’s attempt to kill him was in the offing, Axiom attempted to distract himself with the situation on Fyodos, which had been identified by Doctryn. The human colonists, the Fyodoi, were becoming increasingly virulent as sharp divisions began to disrupt their society, and the two Sith were keen to stimulate these tensions, and possibly force the Fyodoi to open trade with the wider galaxy, as it would result in a rush of advanced technological weapons flooding the markets, which in turn could be used to stimulate the problem on Annoo and elsewhere, and could also be used to arm the Federation. They travelled to Fyodos, and acquired several caches of weapons in exchange for helping to try and alleviate tensions. Axiom asked the Republic to intervene, realising that the sharp divisions, which were made along the lines of wealth, privilege and aristocracy, would be incredibly difficult to solve, he allowed the Jedi to intervene, knowing they’d fail.

Axiom and Doctryn then travelled to Kiffex, where they intended to begin the process of toppling Clan Moxla from the position of Sheyf of Kiffu. Clan Moxla was far too friendly with the Republic and the Jedi, and were almost zealot like in the enforcement of their policies and laws, which was counter to the plans of the Sith. Axiom and Doctryn smuggled powerful weapons to the inmates on Kiffex, which would then be used to destabilise the Moxla regime. Departing the planet, Axiom was pleased, and intended to orchestrate the fall of clan Moxla over the course of many years, and this was to be the first strike. Departing the planet, they were suddenly intercepted by Guardian vessels, who had been alerted to them smuggling powerful weapons. Axiom attempted to explain it away, but the Guardians moved to attack position. Shocked, Axiom attempted to persuade them through the Force that they were mistaken, but they opened fire on the ship. Increasingly furious, Axiom demanded that the Guardians stand down and that they settle it properly, but they gave chase, pursuing the ship back towards the two planets.

Axiom demanded to know how the Guardians knew of the weapons they had smuggled, but their response was to disable the weapons of their ship, which wasn’t going to last long under combined attack. Panicked, the two Sith headed for their small shuttle. Axiom made sure to collect the holocron of Darth Taral, but as he picked up the holocron it dawned on him that the only way the Guardians could have known about their actions was if Doctryn had told them. Turning to run to the ship, he was faced with Doctryn, who blasted his master with a Force push into the viewport of the cockpit, while his master screamed and held onto the holocron. Doctryn taunted his master, revealing he’d been planning this for months, and knowing his master wouldn’t be able to factor in outside influences affecting his choice of when best to attack his master. Doctryn gave his master a last respectful nod, and then unleashed a powerful Force push, and Axiom screamed as his body was sucked out into space, still clutching the holocron. Having been blasted out the ship just above orbit, Axiom was suddenly trapped in vacuum, and was about to enter Kiffex’s atmosphere. He watched as the Guardians destroyed his ship, and as their escape shuttle vanished into hyperspace as his body fell through space, entered the atmosphere and started to plummet towards the surface, burning as he did so.

However, this was not the end of Darth Axiom. Using the last of his power to break his fall and sustain him through his re-entry into the atmosphere, Axiom survived his apprentice’s treachery. Plummeting down into Kiffex’s swamps, he was found by the Guardian medic who served on the planet. Axiom was taken to Deadend and put on life support while the Guardians nursed him back to health. Axiom was in a coma for the better part of eight years, and despite the efforts of the medics to wake him he remained comatose in the Guardian facility that oversaw the criminals on the planet. However, across the galaxy Doctryn was performing a dark side ritual, and the swirling eddies of the dark side provoked something within the comatose Sith Lord, who finally awoke.

Axiom was returned to life, and the Guardian that saved his life informed him that he had been in a coma for eight years. Furious at the amount of time wasted, Axiom interrogated the Guardian, who was the same one who had saved him. He explained that as a healer he was honour bound to try and save any life even though it looked like a waste of time, hence why he brought Axiom back to Deadend to try and heal him. He persisted the last eight years, saving him twice when his vitals crashed and let him recuperate on his own terms, and now, despite all odds, he was suddenly back. He also pointed out that due to his smuggling charge, he would have been imprisoned here for eight years anyway. Axiom was thankful to the Guardian, and asked where his things were, and the Guardian informed him that he had kept them, and despite the presence of the lightsaber, he hadn’t alerted the Jedi, believing that whoever wielded a red lightsaber would have a good reason for avoiding the Jedi. Incredibly thankful, Axiom consented to remain on Deadend for his rehabilitation, getting his body to function normally again, while the Guardian negotiated with the Sheyf. During his absence, the Sheyf’s grip on power had become rather tenuous, and as a result he hadn’t wished to free Axiom. However the healer pointed out that he had served his sentence, and feigning ignorance allowed them to believe Axiom had no inclination that he had tried to topple Clan Moxla, and as a result the sheyf had no choice but to free Axiom. The healer returned his trappings, including Taral’s holocron, and with that Axiom departed Kiffex, ready to retake his place in the Grand Plan.

Axiom spent the first year after his departure from Kiffex in seclusion, using the resources he had begun to set aside years previous. In his seclusion, he spent his time catching up on all that had happened during his time in the coma, and also studying every aspect of Darth Taral’s holocron. Curiously in this period Axiom had no designs to head back to the Sith, and while he sought revenge on Doctryn, he also respected him and spent his recuperation formulating his own plots and keeping well clear of any of the Sith networks that he knew were out there. Following a year in seclusion Axiom returned to the Neimodians. While the proto-Trade Federation had done quite well for itself in his absence, Axiom now returned and was greeted by delighted board members. With Axiom’s help, the Neimodian Federation continued to increase in power and wealth, and Axiom orchestrated events so that the powerful weapons of the Fyodoi among others continued to strengthen the Federation. Axiom worked hard to increase the power of the Federation, and over the next eight years he helped guide the Neimodians towards the time when they would be able to stand without help from the Sith. To this end, he helped block buyouts from the Commerce Guild and the Techno Union, he fixed arms problems with Baktoid and also dictated the rise to power of a representative who would work for the Federation’s aims. Unable to act himself, instead he found himself a lieutenant of the Federation, and suggested that he be sent as their representative to the Republic Corporation Committee who would bring any of their problems to the Republic. The board agreed, and when on Coruscant, Axiom pulled the lieutenants strings and helped him get legislation passed that would help in the long run. After eight years of bargaining, double dealing and orchestrating events, the Neimodian Federation ceased to exist, and became the Trade Federation, and Axiom felt a dark surge in the Force as the creation of the Federation was a death knell in the Republic’s coffin.

With the Federation now established, Axiom could turn his attention to other matters. As such the next thing that occupied his gaze was the situation on Fyodos, which he had set up before his untimely disappearance from galactic affairs. Having previously sparked sharp divisions within Fyodoi society, he had stimulated the growth of the Fyodoi arms trade, watching as they created more and more dangerous weapons of war. These divisions continued to rip apart society, to the extent that civil war was in the offing. Axiom precipitated the final shove and brought the two factions to war. Using his influence at the Trade Federation, and seeking to use the advanced Fyodoi weapons to stimulate an arms race that would leave the Federation even more powerful than it already was, Axiom had the Federation arrive on Fyodos to offer the reigning government a deal to export their weapons in exchange for greater protection from the Galidyn, who were becoming increasingly belligerent towards the Fyodoi. Over a decade of mediation had failed by this point, to the extent that the Republic and the Jedi could no longer afford to have their resources tied up the planet. When the Fyodoi government accepted the Trade Federations deal in exchange for the ability to subdue the Galidyn should a war break out, Axiom contacted the Galidyn and warned them. The Galidyn, who while belligerent, had no interest in fighting a war, went to their supporters within the Fyodoi, who split from the government beginning the long promised civil war. The advanced technology of the Fyodoi obliterated much of the planet’s surface and forced the Fyodoi and the Galidyn to live underground, in an event known as the Great Cleansing. Axiom was pleased with this, as it had removed the Fyodoi’s advanced weapons as a potential obstacle, had strengthened the Federation and had weakened the Republic and the Jedi who had failed to solve the problem.

With his two previous plans now having reached their completion, Axiom could now turn his attention to getting revenge on his erstwhile apprentice who had so clearly failed to kill him. However, as time went on and Axiom noticed events in the galaxy that had the specific dark nuance of the Sith to them, he began to reconsider his position and instead opted to follow his own plans and adopt a patient approach to his former apprentice. Keeping an eye on the Trade Federation as that was the key to victory, Axiom instead focused on Balmorra. Balmorra was always a centre of industry for the Republic, and as the gateway between the Colonies and Core. Due to the recent events that had plagued the galaxy, such as the crisis in the Corellian sector, the problems on Fyodos, and the rising belligerence of the Annoo-Dat, many were claiming that the Republic required a more forceful judicial force, which could supersede or supplement the Jedi. Negotiating a contract with Rendili, the two planets began a program to create new engines of pacification which could be used by the Republic. Axiom took great interest in this development, fearing that a more powerful judicial force was counterproductive to his plans, particularly those involving the Trade Federation. Becoming known as the PINOT program, short for Peace In Our Time, the two planets were dedicated to creating weapons that would help quell potential trouble spots. To his alarm, the chancellor and the Jedi both backed this scheme, necessitating him to become more involved than he had originally intended. Months of sabotage followed the original announcement, and trade unions and strikes helped to derail the plans of the two planets. Axiom recognised this as the work of Doctryn, but kept himself at bay, waiting to see how things would turn out. While the program was delayed and became much more costly than was originally intended, after two years Balmorra produced the _Pacifier_ class tank. An antipersonnel weapon, it was designed to be deployed on troubled worlds and put down insurrections with others of its kind, ending the threats before they got totally out of hand. In addition, Rendili finished its work on the _Rectifier_ class cruiser, which could carry a small army, was armed with anti weapon batteries and could easily disable enemy ships with its vast array of ion cannons and emp weapons. Fearing the damage these two vehicles could do should they go into mass production, Axiom realised that if they met with senate approval, they would swiftly become mainstays of the judicial fleet, and like cruisers such as the _Hammerhead_ , could last generations which would undermine events still to come. To that end, he had to orchestrate a way for them to fail to ensure that they could never be mass produced.

The _Rectifier_ class cruiser was the easiest problem, and Axiom spent many months planning for the test run to fail. The test would be on a moon of Rendili, used against battle droids donated by Balmorra. Axiom watched from an _Invincible_ class dreadnaught as the _Rectifier_ moved into position over the moon and descended through the atmosphere, deploying its massive peacekeeping garrison made up of volunteers from the planet and firing its weapons. Axiom, who had resolved to use the Force to sabotage the operation, watched in shock however as the cruiser began to bombard the moon much more than it ought to as its energy systems surged out of control. The peacekeeping garrison from Rendili was slaughtered as the weapons were turned against them, killing all those involved as the ship continued to surge in energy. Unable to cope with the sheer volume of energy, the cruiser exploded, slaughtering any of the remaining peacekeeping force and creating an EMP blast that disabled every ship and major system nearby. The dreadnaught began to topple to Rendili, and several other ships had also been disabled by the explosion, along with the shipyards. Ships plummeted from orbit and smashed into populace centres on the planet surface, and the dreadnaught seemed destined to join them just before the power came back online. Axiom detected a small shudder in the Force, and realised that Doctryn was to blame for the debacle. The sabotage of the _Rectifier_ led to the death of the two thousand strong demonstration force, the loss of millions of credits as the shipyards and ports in orbit shut down from the pulse, and thousands more were killed as disabled ships crashed into the planet. The Jedi investigated and concluded that corners had been cut and that the ship was never safe to begin with, and the humiliated Republic cancelled the order for those cruisers, allowing Axiom some relief.

A similar debacle for the _Pacifier_ class tank, in which the hypermatter reactor it housed exploded and annihilated half the village it was driving through on its way to the test site was enough to see that project cancelled as well. Pleased with his agents success in sabotaging the tank, between he and Doctryn they had ensured that the judicial forces could still be fought when the time came.

For the next several years, Axiom continued to advance the Sith imperative in his own way. A faction was growing in the senate that was trying to restrict the growth of the corporations militaries, and that was in opposition to the Sith plans. The senator in question was Neimodia’s own senator, despite being pleaded with by the Federations representative on the corporation committee to let the matter be. Dark nuances again filled the Force, and Axiom realised that Doctryn was also aware of the situation. While he trusted his apprentice to take a less subtle approach, Axiom saw an opportunity to turn the corporations into unlikely heroes. Having had the Federation invest in Riflor in order to help the Advozse rebuilt their frequently shattered cities, Axiom had become aware of a particularly violent Advozse by the name of Krintak, and contacted him with an offer of employment. Krintak had developed a substantial pirate band and was a scourge in his own system, and had begun attacking outside of Riflor, and was clearly beginning to court the clearly fanatical inhabitants of the Lortan system, who, if given access to space travel, would become a large menace. A Jedi peacekeeping force was dispatched to bring Krintak to justice. In the area of space known as the Cerean Reach, Krintak ambushed a senatorial ship heading for the Hirsi system, necessitating the Jedi diverting to confront him. However, due to it being a developing trade route, the Federation had a presence there, as had been ordered by Axiom. The Federation forces responded to the distress signal of the senator, and the Federation defeated Krintak, killing him in the process and returning peace to that area of space, although his son, Tulak, escaped. As Axiom had set Krintak up so that the Federation could be in place to save the day, and also to embarrass the Jedi as they had failed to stop the pirate, it was a victory, and with the Hirsian senator applauding the actions of the Federation, the attempt to curtail the power of the guilds was scrapped. In the same time, the senator who had originally proposed the curtailment was found to have embezzled several million credits from several of the charities he was supposed to be supporting, and was arrested despite his claims of innocence.

The long anticipated reunion with his former apprentice came several years later, following a botched attempt to acquire Broodica’s grimoire. When an Iskaloni collector died, his collection was sold off to acquire the funds to pay for his estate. In his estate was an ancient Sith artefact, Broodica’s grimoire. An ancient book of spells and rituals, it came to the attention of the Jedi who sought to prevent the book from falling into the wrong hands. Axiom headed to Iskalon in person to try and attain the book for the Sith. However when he registered an interest in buying the book, under the nose of the Jedi sent to bid on it, he attracted the interest of a young male Gotal. Throughout the auction, every time Axiom bid, the Gotal would make a higher bid, depriving Axiom of whatever he was bidding for. When it came to the book, the two of them began to argue, with Axiom trying to figure out exactly who this Gotal was, and while he was distracted, the Jedi won the book, further enraging Axiom. Figuring it would draw too much attention to steal the book from the Jedi, Axiom instead sought out the Gotal, who revealed that he was trying to collect the book for a special client. Intrigued, Axiom offered him the holocron of Darth Taral as a false apology, having a rather shrewd idea of who the client was. The Gotal accepted and left the planet, with Axiom in close pursuit. He eventually arrived on Duro, following the Gotal to a skyhook. The Gotal was proudly presenting the holocron to a Rodian, who seemed alarmed to learn that it was the holocron of Darth Taral. Axiom chose that moment to execute the Gotal and greeted his former apprentice, Darth Doctryn.

Doctryn wasted no time, engaging his master in a vicious lightsaber duel, berating him for killing yet another prospective apprentice. With both Sith evenly matched, the two disarmed each other, and exhausted, Axiom proposed that they reevaluate their relationship, and see if the Rule of Two could work with two masters as opposed to a master and an apprentice, with both of them leading and learning from the other. Rather than risk annihilating the entire order, Doctryn agreed, leading to a new phase of the Sith.

With the two Sith now working together, they could focus on a great deal more. Darth Axiom orchestrated the fall of Clan Moxla on Kiffu, and guided Clan Vos to become the next generation of sheyfs. Axiom had identified years before that Clan Moxla was little more than a Republic outpost, far too friendly with both the Jedi and Coruscant, and their close relationship would cause problems later on. The mission in which Axiom was nearly killed and was hence trapped on Kiffex for eight years had been the first stage of the conflict, and despite being immobilised, the plan went as expected. Prisoners got their hands on the powerful weapons he had smuggled onto the planet, prompting riots and prison breaks across the planet. With the Guardians overwhelmed, they were forced to retreat back to Kiffu as the situation on Kiffex descended into total anarchy. The Sheyf of Clan Moxla, Irundo Moxla, was deprived of options, as he couldn’t send the Guardians into a bloodbath, and nor could he allow the prisoners to remain in charge of the other planet, especially when there were still some Guardians being held hostage. Faced with little choice, he had only two options: ask for Jedi and Republic intervention which would see the end of his leadership, or fix the situation himself: still determined to maintain power, Moxla launched the entire Guardian navy, from small one man fighters, to shuttles, to transports, to cruisers, and unleashed a devastating blitzkrieg on the planet, which left Deadend as the only remaining settlement and saw the deaths of thousands of inmates, many of whom were wrongfully imprisoned, or had not taken sides in the prison riots. Criticised for his heavy handed response, this was the beginning of the end for Clan Moxla, as many began to question their competence to lead, and also question the relationship with the Republic if they could not help them when they were in peril.

Now, several years later, during which time Axiom had continued to smuggle powerful weapons on planet, orchestrate daring escapes and show the Guardians up at every opportunity, Axiom was finally ready to end the reign of Clan Moxla. An infamous Arconan criminal, Elit Marz, had orchestrated a terrorist strike on the capital city of Cona, which had killed over ten thousand Arcona and destroyed nearly half the city. Fleeing his homeworld while he sacrificed his followers, he had been intercepted by the Guardians and imprisoned upon Kiffex. Axiom used his agents to support Marz, and as a psycophathic and sociopathic terrorist, no matter what he did it would cause severe ramifications for the Guardians. Marz took control of Deadend and had the entire town reporting to him, and he obliterated the encampments that had sprung up since the Guardians bombardment. After destroying the encampments, the Guardians on the ground warned Moxla that if he did nothing, they would have an incredibly dangerous terrorist in charge with access to very dangerous weapons. Moxla however didn’t care about this, because, as criminals, he believed that they were all guilty and that people died in prison all the time. This played right into Axiom’s hands, and he informed Marz that among the people being held on Kiffex was a whistleblower who had discovered severe corruption in the upper echelons of Cybot Galactica, and he had been put there as a precautionary measure by the Republic judicial forces until he could testify. Being alerted to this, Marz captured the whsitleblower and threatened to execute him live on the holonet if Moxla did not step down. Moxla fobbed it off, claiming that it would be listed as a tragic accident and that since he was a criminal no one would care. Despite the protests of other Guardians, he then hung up on Marz. Enraged, Marz then recorded his murder of the whistleblower, which he then broadcast throughout the Inner Rim which then reached the rest of the Republic. Unfortunately for Moxla, his comments were also broadcast, and a powerful Republic judicial force, combined with Jedi and Antarian Rangers, was assembled to assist the Guardians in reclaiming Kiffex. Fearing the end of his reign, Moxla dispatched a force of Guardians, but in his haste he forced them to cut corners and as such the entire force walked into a trap and was massacred. As his reign crumbled, anarchy broke out on Kiffu itself and Quolere Vos, leader of Clan Vos, rallied the other clans to march on the capital and depose Moxla before his ineptitude killed any more Guardians. Desperate to keep power, he ordered all of Kiffex to be flattened by the Guardian fleet, though only half actually launched due to the chaos on Kiffu. It was then that Axiom’s master stroke was revealed, as working with Marz they had ensured that several ships would be sabotaged. Upon hearing that the Guardians were about to bombard the planet, Marz gave the signal and the ships that remained in port on Kiffu were destroyed in terrorist bombings, prompting the attack force to turn back to Kiffu leading to the outbreak of civil war as the remaining ships turned on Moxla as well. Quolere Vos entered the capital with an army, armed with the Fyodoi weapons Axiom had procured for her clan, and her ranks swelled as the people abandoned Moxla. The Republic forces arrived and invaded Kiffex, and the mission under the command of two Council members, they subdued the riots on Kiffex and restored peace. Marz destroyed himself in a violent explosion, using all his stockpiled bombs, and destroyed half of Deadend and killed four Jedi, half the judicial forces and several more Guardians. On Kiffu, Quolere Vos seized the capital, executed Moxla for his incompetence and corruption, and Clan Vos were nominated to become the sheyfs of Kiffu, with Quolere becoming the first sheyf of Clan Vos.

Axiom was very pleased with his work. The Republic and Jedi were made to look ineffectual as it had taken so long for them to respond, the Guardians were a laughing stock as they had taken severe losses and were forced to rely on Republic help, Marz and several other dangerous sentients were killed, Cybot Galactica remained corrupt and untouchable as without the whistleblower there was no evidence to bring them to trial, and the Guardians were now ruled by Clan Vos who were less sympathetic to Coruscant and the Jedi and knew that on some level they owed Axiom, which meant further opportunities would be available for the Sith at a later date.

Meanwhile, Doctryn continued to seek out Sith teachings and continued to exploit the continuing fallout of the crash of the _Chu’unthor_ , harrying Jedi attempts to rebuild, reclaiming Sith treasures and antagonising rival Force groups against the Jedi, drawing them, and occasionally the Republic, into conflict. Both Axiom and Doctryn continued to ensure that law enforcement agencies and judicial forces were either armed the way they wanted them to be (not very much or well) or were governed in such a way that they would not get in the way. With the Guardians now ruled by Clan Vos, who were grateful to Axiom for helping them into power, the Sith had a useful avenue into law makers and enforcers outside the Jedi. By the same token, Doctryn had ensnared the Antarian Rangers in a trap, humiliating and setting back a vital resource for the Jedi. During his actions with the Rangers, Doctryn came across a Defel who the Rangers planned to ship to Coruscant for training in the temple. Seizing the young Defel for his own, he brought him back to the skyhook and upon agreement with his master, trained the Defel as their new apprentice, Darth Spectyr. Realising that Doctryn would try and use the boy against him, Axiom ensured that he spent much time teaching the young Defel, showing him the true power of the dark side, intending to one day turn him on Doctryn and take Spectyr as his apprentice to last them into a new generation.

Both Sith realised that Metalorn had become a vital future flashpoint, as both the Techno Union and the Trade Federation were betting for mining rights on the planet. Axiom favoured the Federation getting the planet, while Doctryn argued that the Techno Union would be more advantageous in the long run, as while the Federation was vital, the other guilds were needed just as much to bring the Republic down. The original Techno Union settlement was sabotaged, which prompted the union to act anyway, which led to a team of Republic mediators getting involved and temporarily putting a caretaker force into place. Furious with each other’s meddling, which had delayed the start of the building of the droids forces planned to support the Annoo-Dat, the two Sith accused each other of meddling and violating their partnership. It was then that both Sith realised that they were both telling the truth when they professed their innocence, and abruptly realised that Spectyr had set them up. Detonating a fighter’s magazine of proton torpedoes in the hangar bay of the skyhook, both Sith were terribly wounded and attempted to fight back, only for Spectyr to murder both masters and become the sole Dark Lord of the Sith.

****

** Darth Doctryn **

Species: Rodian male

Birth name: Gwanaed Noobil  
Reign: 371 BBY-367 BBY, 367 BBY-329 BBY/332 BBY-329 BBY  
Info: Formerly a Rodian clan leader, the Rodian who would become Darth Doctryn was a consummate warrior, and led his clan well during the various clan wars. During one particular war against a favourite of the Great Clan, he unexpectedly triumphed, dooming his entire clan to reprisals from the Great Clan who would be out for revenge. Darth Axiom then approached the Rodian, and offered to take his entire clan off planet provided they signed on with the Neimodian Federation as independent defence contractors, and he agreed. Once off planet, Axiom showed the Rodian the extent of his work with the Neimodians and revealed his true identity as a Sith Lord, and the Rodian willingly submitted himself to the Sith teachings becoming Darth Doctryn.

An able apprentice, Axiom trained Doctryn in the use of Djem So, and relied on him to help forward the designs of the Sith, including removing obstacles to his plans with the Neimodians. While Axiom provoked a deadly civil war on Annoo, Doctryn visited neighbouring worlds, sparking off conflicts between the Weequay and the Defel to further draw out the problem and drag the Republic and the Jedi into mediation.

After four years of training, Doctryn began to contemplate toppling his master. Realising that as his master was a Givin, he would have no end of contingencies, and so would have to be incredibly clever taking his master down. His master was provoking conflict on Fyodos, and was also planning to help topple Clan Moxla on Kiffu by supplying Clan Vos with weapons made by the Fyodoi. With a burst of understanding, he realised how best to topple his master. When making a shipment to Kiffex to assist Clan Vos in arming for their eventual takeover, Doctryn tipped the Guardians off that the inhabitants of their ship were smuggling high powered illegal weapons to the planet. As he and his master left the planet, they came under attack from the Guardians, and the Guardians tried to destroy their ship. The two Sith made to evacuate until Axiom realised that Doctryn was the reason they were under attack. Doctryn then pounced, blasting his master, who was holding the holocron of Darth Taral, out of the cockpit viewport allowing him to be sucked into space and dragged into Kiffex’s atmosphere while Doctryn made good his escape.

Believing himself the sole Sith Lord, Doctryn’s next few months were quiet, lest the Guardians find some way to discover him. With the Grand Plan now dependent on him, Doctryn was now looking for ways to advance the aims of the Sith, and also to find an apprentice who was worthy of his teachings. Having been instilled with the Rule of Two religiously by his master, Doctryn believed in working by rote, using the techniques of the past to help instruct the next generation. A wise and bookish master, he believed that the future of the Sith was prevalent upon him, and as such, he sought an appropriate apprentice.

To his surprise, Doctryn found two prospective apprentices within a year of his master’s apparent death. Bringing them both to his newly acquired skyhook orbiting Duro from which he was now basing the Sith’s operations, he took them both under his wing, instructing them in the ways of the Sith. Teaching through ritual and learning, he taught them, an Aqualish and a Bothan, the secrets of the dark side, the merits of the Sith and of the Rule of Two. However, the two apprentices quickly grew frustrated with their apparently slow progress. Due to his methods of teaching, they believed he was short changing their training, and that he wasn’t a particularly good master, and the two began to conspire to remove Doctryn. While Doctryn fully planned to have the two apprentices face each other in combat in order to decide who would become his apprentice, the two apprentices moved faster than he had anticipated, and during a lightsaber session the two apprentices ambushed him, determined to kill him and seize the throne for themselves. Furious, Doctryn slaughtered them due to his superior mastery of the Force, and he was enraged that he had wasted so much time training them only to have it wasted by their foolishness.

In fury at the waste of his time, Doctryn decided that the search for an apprentice could wait, and as such turned his attention back to stimulating the conflicts on and around Annoo, which were now required Republic intervention. Worsening the situation, he watched in delight as the Annoo got steadily more bloodthirsty as the civil war raged, and watched as the Republic tried and failed repeatedly to end the fighting. To that end, a new peace mission was launched, with the personal backing of the Vice Chair of the Senate. Doctryn saw this as an excellent chance to humiliate the Republic. Deciding to bring in all the players who were now fighting civil wars on their planets, the Kitonak Vice Chair of the Senate, Mogar Redbar, brought the Annoo-Dat, the Defel and the Weequay’s to the nearby planet of Bimmisari in order to hold a peace conference. During that time a ceasefire would take place on their various worlds. Doctryn sought to prevent this and remove the Vice Chair as an obstacle as he was an incredibly liberal and enlightened member of the senate. Hiring a Weequay band of mercenaries on Sriluur, they broke the ceasefire by attacking two different clans, which prompted a resurgence in the fighting, and the news travelled fast to Bimmisari. Redbar tried to calm the diplomats, and with the assistance of a Kitonak Jedi Master who the Vice Chair had asked to join him in the mission by the name of Poolie Curtin, managed to at the very least calm the delegates, who ordered a further cessation of hostilities on their home planets, leading to an even more tense ceasefire than the one that had already been broken. In the chaos however, Doctryn had inserted a band of Sith network agents onto Bimmisari to deal with the peace summit should the Republic regain control of the broken ceasefire. As intended the group infiltrated the summit site while the Vice Chair tried to mediate the disputes that had caused the civil wars in the first place. It was then that his agents revealed to the summit various accusations and evidence of war crimes committed by the Annoo-Dat against their own people. Sparked into a furious rage, the crowds, along with Weequay and the Defel, provoked by the proof of the Annoo-Dat’s war crimes, surged forward and attempted to kill the Annoo-Dat representatives, leading to a firefight. In the chaos, Master Curtin defended the Annoo-Dat but in a stroke of luck one of the Sith agents killed the Vice Chair with a stray blaster bolt. The fallout was immense, and Doctryn was incredibly pleased with his agents work. With the death of the Vice Chair, he was able to manipulate the rise of the Duros Charr Implain, who was much less liberal and much more susceptible to the plans of the Sith. In addition, the civil wars continued to rage on the planets in question, the Republic had been humiliated, and in addition the failure of Master Curtin to protect the Vice Chair had done a great deal of damage to the Jedi as well.

Satisfied that the civil wars in the outer rim were trundling along nicely, Doctryn began the search for an apprentice. Realising that having more than one apprentice would potentially lead to them banding together against their superior master, as Bane predicted centuries before, Doctryn was determined to this time have only one apprentice. To that end, he began to look for the perfect apprentice. At the same time he was also beginning to take an interest in Dathomir, contemplating the use of the witches as weapon that would further bog down the Republic and the Jedi. This brought the Gank to his attention, as he began to use them to buy more dangerous and volatile weapons, which he planned to pass on to the fighters on Annoo and was considering giving them to the witches of Dathomir in order to make them a more potent threat. While negotiating with the Gank, he found a Gank who was particularly strong in the Force. Considering him as a prospective apprentice, he offered the Gank the role of his liaison, and the Ganks took the job, heading to train the Annoo-Dat, Weequay and Defel, along with exporting weapons to both the warring factions and the witches of Dathomir. As the Ganks began to train the factions Doctryn was interested in, he began giving his prospective apprentice lessons in the use of the Force and the history of the Sith, beginning to attract his attention. Imprinting the rules of the Sith upon the Gank, Doctryn was hopeful that this could be the apprentice he was searching for.

While he began the rudimentary training of the Gank, in order to draw the Jedi’s attention away from the situation he sought to brew on Dathomir, he focused his attentions on the Tapani sector. While the sector had been fairly quiet of late, Doctryn knew that as the Grand Plan progressed, they would soon need to become more involved in galactic affairs, and conspired to bring them into the forefront to have an effect on the Republic and on the Jedi. He planned to instigate a conflict with the slowly rebuilding Mecrosa Order, which his agents had sounded out as a potential ally for the Sith. His agents had learned through their investigations that the Mecrosa were becoming a viable force once again, enough to start making themselves a viable threat to the rest of the sector. Alarmed to learn that the Mecrosa were advancing at a much greater pace than was originally believed, Doctryn realised that if the Mecrosa were allowed to flourish unchecked they could later prove to be an impediment to the Sith, and that action had to be taken.

Studying the Mecrosa, he learned that they had been building themselves up secretly for the last century, and that they had begun to get back to their dark side roots. Concerned that the return to the Mecrosa order’s roots of the dark side could raise Jedi curiosity that could perhaps link back to the Sith, Doctryn realised that the Mecrosa had to be dealt with, but ideally left intact should they prove useful to the Sith in future. Using his cover as a financial analyst, he approached the various houses of the Tapani sector, reasoning that the resurgence of the Mecrosa had to mean that at least one of the houses was involved. Pursuing this angle for months, he investigated each house in turn, integrating himself into each house and using his mastery of the Force and keen analytical skills to try and divine the house supporting their return. When meeting with his Gank contact to learn how the civil wars were doing, he was accosted by the Mecrosa assassins who had been alerted that someone was sniffing around, wielding deadly blades, poisons, meagre Force powers and lightfoils. To his irritation, the assassins killed the Gank who he had considered for his apprentice. Robbed once more of a potential apprentice, Doctryn slaughtered the assassins and interrogated one of them, and confirmed what he had already suspected: that despite their history with the Mecrosa Order, House Mecetti were not the group supporting the Mecrosa Order, and it was actually House Melantha that was behind the resurgence. Now knowing what he needed to know, Doctryn withdrew from the Tapani sector with his captive and retreated back to Duro to plot his next move.

Realising that if House Melantha supported the Mecrosa, and they supported Melantha in turn, it could lead to House Melantha taking over the entire sector, which would destabilise that entire region of space, and make the Tapani sector a source of trouble and anxiety for the Sith further down the line. Deciding that the situation had to be nipped in the bud, Doctryn began to orchestrate events, all the while pondering how exactly the Mecrosa order had regained its abilities with the Force. House Melantha was trying to make itself the leader of the Tapani sector, and was building alliances and contacts for that very occasion, planning to topple House Pelagia and seize control for themselves. To that end, they had begun to funnel funds and tutors to the Mecrosa order, helping them rebuild with the aim of using them to assassinate prominent members of House Pelagia on the Grand Council in order to absorb their positions and allow their own house to rise in power. In return for their help, Melantha would recognise the order as a legitimate arm of the Tapani sector and give rise to their own sort of mini Jedi/Sith order, which would draw too much attention from the Jedi and could lead to investigations that the Sith could potentially be involved. Doctryn began to ally with the various other houses, determined to end the rising power of Melantha while plotting to take down the Mecrosa order.

Torturing the captured Mecrosa assassin who he had previously spared to the brink of insanity through use of Force mind games, Doctryn discovered that the order was commanded by a Mrlssi male by the name of Dagwa Proosht. When the assassin expired, Doctryn again travelled to the Tapani sector, and learned all he could about the impending coup and this mysterious leader of the Mecrosa order. Startled to learn that Proosht had once been taught history by a Sith historian at university, whom Doctryn recognised as Darth Toxis, he learned that Proosht had returned to his home sector and developed his mediocre Force powers with the help of the Mecrosa order themselves, seeking to draw out the Sith, sharing the same obsession with the dark order that Toxis had once had. Determined to lure out the Sith, who Toxis had convinced him still existed and which he had spent over a century searching for, Proosht had built up the entire order into a formidable force which he planned to present to the Sith should he find them as the nucleus of a new Brotherhood of Darkness. Nevertheless impressed by the Mrlssi’s audacity and ambition, Doctryn decreed that such a thing could not be allowed to continue and began to make provisions to bring the order down.

He contacted the Grand Lord of House Melantha and began to probe the Grand Lord to see just how far his plans had developed. Doctryn had assembled several of the smaller houses, knowing that if House Pelagia became involved too early he would lose his chance to discover the location of the Mecrosa headquarters. Realising that the Mecrosa order was about to make his move while House Melantha prepared to wrest control of the sector from Pelagia, Doctryn, short of time and options, contacted the houses he had assembled just as Melantha and the Mecrosa order launched their attacks. Convincing the Grand Lords of his three house coalition, he convinced the leaders of House Cadriaan, Barnaba and Calipsa to ask the Jedi for help as the Mecrosa struck across Pelagia, assassinating their members in the Circle of Ten and in the senate while Melantha moved against their naval forces and seized their shareholdings and worlds. Pelagia was slow to rally, losing several early engagements, but Doctryn’s coalition helped keep the situation at bay. While the stalemate persisted, he hired a band of Gank killers and used their ship as his own flagship, heading to the Tapani sector in order to reinforce his chosen houses as Melantha came close to taking control of the sector. As Doctryn arrived with his Gank reinforcements to supplement the weakened Pelagia and coalition ships and end the threat posed to the Sith by the Mecrosa order, a Jedi peacekeeping force arrived to take control of the situation, fearing a rise of dark side fanaticism would lead to future trouble. Doctryn and his Gank assassins boarded the Melantha _Invincible_ class Dreadnaught at the same time as the Jedi and though the Force users of the Mecrosa order and their most hardened warriors tried to delay them, against the two pronged assault of vicious Gank killers led by a Sith Lord and a large group of fifteen Jedi of varying ranks and powers, the Mecrosa was shattered in the battle and Proosht began the evacuation. With the Jedi detained trying to round up as many order members as possible, Doctryn reached Proosht, who, delighted to finally discover that the Sith Lords were real, offered himself as Doctryn’s new apprentice and promised him the entire order would be his. Proosht’s second in command, his grandson, was also present. Doctryn informed Proosht that while he had respected all he had done, and appreciated what he was trying to do, the Sith had evolved past armies and this wouldn’t be the first time the Sith had been burned by outside forces. Betrayed and humiliated, his dreams of serving the Sith shattered, Proosht attacked Doctryn and engaged him in a duel. Murdering Proosht, Doctryn allowed the grandson to escape, who promised to rebuild the Mecrosa order once again and ensure that it one day could serve the Sith, and pleased with this result, he made good his escape before the Jedi arrived.

With the Tapani sector back under control, Doctryn continued to clean up the mess that had been caused by the resurgence of the Mecrosa order, carefully hiding any potential link to the Sith. However, with Proosht’s second in command, Gar Neltix, now leading the order Doctryn retrained their loyalty, and began to infiltrate them across the galaxy where they were used to take down potential rivals to his plans. Knowing that his master planned to orchestrate the creation of the Trade Federation, Doctryn had the Mecrosa carefully assassinate those who could be opposed to the Sith’s designs and helped stimulate the rise of the Federation. As the Federation continued to rise, Doctryn figured that Axiom had left such explicit instructions that they could not fail in Axiom’s plans and was content to leave them to their own devices. To that end, he continued to use the Mecrosa to remove problem individuals, which in turn led to the manipulation of the electoral crisis on Denon.

Centred at the intersection of both the Hydian Way and the Corellian Run, it was a vital world as supplies ran through to worlds such as Corellia, Kuat, Sarapin and Rendili. An opportunistic and charismatic young human senator, Goran Savor, was intending to make Denon a centre of industry, trade and commerce. Building up a substantial following on the planet, he proposes the Prospero Deal, which would see other Core worlds recognising Denon as a powerful rival to Coruscant. Feeding off the latent leftover resentment that had been stoked by the Sith for centuries, it took the form of resentment towards Coruscant as several worlds began to sidle up to Denon. Concerned by this turn of events and fearing that Denon, if allowed to succeed in the Prospero Deal, could be the leaders of a new revolution centuries before the Sith were ready to exploit it, Doctryn had the Mecrosa murder Savor as he headed to sign the deal. Without him the entire thing collapsed as several other advocates of the deal ‘tragically’ died before the deal could be finalised, allowing the deal to collapse and Coruscant, and hence the Sith, remained supreme.

While the civil wars on Annoo and the surrounding sectors continued, Doctryn continued stimulating other problems for the Republic, and kept an eye on events in the Fyodos system, deciding to leave the natives there to their own devices, unaware that his master was helping orchestrate the Great Cleansing and its associated fallout. However, the civil wars that Doctryn was stimulating, the Mecrosa crisis in the Tapani sector and the Great Cleansing had prompted the Republic to take a new form of action, which threatened to undermine the Sith imperative. The Peace In Our Time program was a dangerous threat to the Sith and Doctryn resolved to sabotage the effort. Despite Sith agents constantly sabotaging the project, the Republic managed to create two working prototypes, resulting in Doctryn resolving to fix the situation himself and travelled to Rendili to fix the potential problem. Infiltrating the _Rectifier_ class cruiser just before its maiden launch, Doctryn used plans that had been stolen by his agents to ensure that the first test would end in tragedy, and he stole off the ship before anyone realised what he had done. The resulting test was a disaster, killing the peacekeeping garrison who were testing the ship, destroying the ship itself, emitting an EMP pulse that disabled much of the shipyards and crashing numerous ships onto Rendili and also damaged the shipyards. Confident that he had succeeded in damaging the credibility of the scheme and that after such a disaster the Republic wouldn’t continue, he was nevertheless delighted when he heard of the destruction of the _Pacifier_ class tank, not realising that he and his master had nearly encountered each other on Rendili.

However the greatest contribution Doctryn made to the Grand Plan was the destruction of the _Chu’unthor_. The Jedi training vessel had been a constant source of annoyance to the Sith as they saw it as a prime way to strike at the Jedi, but they had so far lacked the necessary ability and opportunity to strike at the ship. However, Doctryn realised a way that he could turn the situation he was creating on Dathomir to his advantage. Having been funnelling weapons and technology to the witches for some time, he realised that, should they escape the planet, the witches and more particularly the Nightsisters, could pose a threat to Sith plans. The Jedi were the ideal candidates to bring the witches low, and even if they didn’t necessarily succeed in totally defeating the witches, the task would still bring the witches low and ensure that Jedi died.

Doctryn planned the attack on the _Chu’unthor_ for many months. With the rise of various satellite academies such as Almas and Bogden there were less Jedi on board than there were at the moment of its launch but there were still around one hundred and fifty Jedi of varying ages and ranks aboard the ship, and Doctryn realised that it was a perfect time to attack. For the past several years he had been funnelling advanced weapons to Dathomir, in preparation to start a conflict with the Jedi, but had lacked the final piece of the puzzle to provoke the Jedi into going after the witches, as he could think of no way to do it without giving the witches space capability which would in turn make them even more dangerous and uncontrollable. But if he could bring the _Chu’unthor_ down on Dathomir, he would have his cause for war made for him and lure the Jedi into a battle in which they would lose lives and face, and the witches would also be diminished as a result. In order to bring this about he had to ensure that the academy ship would crash on Dathomir, and to that end, he undertook a mission of his own, and infiltrated the Jedi ship.

Using all of his power, he constantly had to hide his true presence in the Force, and if his powers slipped for a second, he would be discovered and would be lucky to survive the academy council and various other Jedi who populated the ship. The _Chu’unthor_ followed a meandering route throughout the galaxy, and Doctryn realised that if he was to succeed he had to get on some time when it entered the outer rim, where the Jedi would be cut off from support from the core. While he made his way to rendezvous with the academy ship, the witches on Dathomir were continually being supplied with weapons by his agents, and some of his hired Gank killers were also training them, making the witches all the more formidable in preparation for the Jedi’s arrival. While the witches trained, Doctryn planned his attack and his destruction of the ship to force the two factions together, and on his way to pick up the ship at Telos he thoroughly studied the inhabitants of the ship, including the non sensitive crew, and also constructed an identity for himself that needed to be able to fool the three masters who made up the academy council lest they suspect.

Upon arriving at Telos, Doctryn began his infiltration. Posing as Jedi wanderer Master Toolik Grupdu, he encountered one of the three members of the ships Jedi Council, a Quermian by the name of Lasaet Poof, and offered his services for transport towards the core of the Republic. As a telepath, Poof was the most dangerous of the council of three and could be the one to detect Doctryn’s true identity, but as leader of the council it was he that Doctryn had to convince. After spinning Poof a story about how he had travelled the stars, seeking the wisdom of the Force, Poof welcomed Doctryn aboard with open arms, and introduced him to the other two council members, the Nimbanel Raliss Vaela and the Sy Myrthian Kaldoor Kanthum. Welcomed aboard by the Jedi, Doctryn was careful never to sleep, lest his concentration slip and he reveal himself. Once the ship departed, he began to move around the ship, attracting the interest of a former Sluissi journeyer Teress Vuul, who was a master in charge of teaching the younger students astrophysics. There was also a young Chironian apprentice who attracted Doctryn’s attention, which he was careful about advertising.

Departing Telos, the ship began it’s slow, meandering journey. As a journeyer herself, Master Vuul frequently tried to make conversation with Doctryn, who was rapidly running out of excuses to avoid her but had so far managed to do so. As he continued to avoid her eager interest in him, he explored the ship, learning there were over two hundred Jedi on board, along with a non Jedi crew of around one and a half thousand, who Doctryn realised were the key to his plans to destroy the ship. In that regard he, after some careful investigating, he overheard a conference between the three council members, who were in contact with the council on Coruscant, which Master Poof was a member of. The Jedi had made the decision to scale back on the nonsensitives who worked for them, fearing that allowing the families to remain onboard the _Chu’unthor_ was detrimental to the apprentices and as such the crew were being cut back to replace them with Jedi or droids. When the news broke, Doctryn finally had the in that he needed.

Establishing contact with the Chironian captain Centares, who along with his wife and two other children who were about to lose their home and livelihoods while their youngest remained on board the ship, who was furious at the way the Jedi were treating him. Incensed, Doctryn asked him how one could get down to the engine rooms, and Centares was only too happy to oblige, and told him where he could go and also where the orbital stabilisers were. Doctryn then encountered Centares daughter, Phili, the Chironian apprentice who had so intrigued him before hand.

As Doctryn prepared to sabotage the ship he began to talk more and more to Phili, sensing the burgeoning anger within her, her equine blood making it hard for her to control her temper. Talking with her teachers still in his guise as a Jedi, he learned that despite being an extremely proficient apprentice her difficulty in controlling her anger, and Doctryn began to realise that she would be an exemplary apprentice. However Master Vuul was quick to take notice of his interest in the apprentice, and talked to the Council of her suspicions, believing that Doctryn wasn’t all he was meant to be. Doctryn however was more focused on preparing to destroy the ship and spent as much time as he could with Phili, subtly influencing her towards the dark side.

Events came to a head as the ship approached Dathomir, and while the Jedi had no idea that the ship would arrive there but Doctryn did. Escaping the class the Master Vuul asked him to teach to cover her, while she checked up on his cover story. Allowing the apprentices to leave he headed for the stabilisers, preparing to bring down the ship as it travelled through hyperspace. On his way to the engine rooms, he encountered Phili, and he asked her if she would accept him as her new master, to which she eagerly agreed. Asking her to follow him, they reached the engine rooms, and Phili began to become worried as to who Doctryn really was. Meanwhile elsewhere Vuul had discovered that Doctryn’s Jedi identity didn’t exist and headed to confront him on it, and upon finding out that he had left the class she headed to confront him. By that time Doctryn and Phili had reached the engine rooms and Doctryn used a mind trick to gain access and Phili began to suspect that Doctryn wasn’t all he appeared to be. He entered the engine rooms and when the crew challenged him he used the Force to choke him to get him to comply and get out of his way. Alarmed the crew began to call in the problem which prompted Doctryn to use the Force to slam them against the wall. Realising that Doctryn was more than he intended to be, Phili attempted to run to raise the alarm and infuriated that once again an apprentice would be his undoing, he was forced to throw his saber which plunged into her back and killing his prospective apprentice. Now revealed he slaughtered the entire engine room crew, and then used the Force to wreak havoc inside, destroying the engines and rendering the stabilisers unusable. The _Chu’unthor_ dropped out of hyperspace and alarms started to blare throughout the ship, and a disgruntled Doctryn planned to escape.

Phili had used her connection to her father and warned him as she died, and distraught and realising what had happened he went straight to the council, revealing how his anger had prompted him to tell Doctryn about the engines. As he told the council, with Kanthum condemning him and Poof admitting his anger with them was justified, the blasts ripped through the ship, dropping the ship out of hyperspace and sending alarms blaring through the ship. As the academy blazed with fire, the academy council wondered why Doctryn’s Jedi identity would do such a thing. He then entered the council chamber, and asked Poof to use his telepathy to find out why he would do something. Poof did so, and upon sensing the great darkness inside him, it overwhelmed his brain and killed the Quermian. The other three present were shocked, and quickly moved to stop Doctryn, who then killed Centares before killing the other two councillors in a duel as the ship was consumed with fire. The crew struggled to get the ship under control but with the damage Doctryn had done all they could do was try and land on the planet. Vuul arrived and took command, and the frantic crew informed her that it would be all they could do to try and keep the people in one piece. Vuul realised that Doctryn was the one behind it, and made her way to the hangar to discover Doctryn leaving. She tried to stop him and he lit his saber, throwing it at her to distract her. Retrieving his saber he left the ship and left a terrified Vuul realising what he was just as the academy blazed into the atmosphere and slammed into the planet.

Doctryn was quite pleased with his efforts as he watched the ship crash, and despite the loss of a potential apprentice, counted it as a win and retreated back to Duro. The survivors of the crash included Master Vuul, but as she made her way out of the wreckage, after discovering the bodies of the council, but before she could warn anyone of the existence of the Sith she was killed by a spear to the chest. The survivors were under attack by the witches of Dathomir. While the remaining Jedi tried to defuse the situation the witches launched their attack, realising that the witches had much more powerful weapons than they had originally believed having initially believed them to be primitives. As the wreck burned, the witches surrounded the ship and kept the surviving members of the crew pinned inside, forcing them to fight an extended siege action which cost more lives. Coruscant eventually dispatched a rescue mission of forty Jedi to rescue the survivors and upon their arrival they engaged the witches. The Jedi were shocked to discover how powerful and well equipped the witches were which led to many more deaths before Yoda, the leader of the mission, flanked by the bodies of his fellow commanders, negotiated a truce with a witch named Rell and the Jedi agreed to leave the planet and abandoned the historical and teaching records on the planet leaving them under Rell’s guardianship lest they fall into the wrong hands. The destruction of the _Chu’unthor_ was a major win for the Sith, and Doctryn was extremely pleased with his work. In the crash alone, two thirds of the crew had been killed and thirty seven Jedi had died in the crash, and more Jedi were killed at the hands of the witches, leading to an initial body count of sixty nine Jedi before the arrival of the Jedi. In addition twenty two Jedi were killed from the rescue mission. The Jedi reinforcements had also inflicted heavy casualties on the witches, piling high their bodies and killing many rancors in the fight to liberate the survivors. As a result, Doctryn considered the destruction of the _Chu’unthor_ a major victory for the Sith. With that accomplished, and many Jedi dead and much historical records lost, along with the witches potential threat to his plans being nullified, he could focus on the future of the Sith by finally finding an apprentice worthy of the Sith.

Keeping a low profile for several years as he scoured the galaxy for a worthy apprentice, he unknowingly kickstarted the chain of events that would lead to his reunion with his master, who Doctryn still remained unaware of. A reclusive Iskalloni collector of ancient Force artefacts had recently died, and his collection was being put up for auction on Iskallon, and in his collection was a book of the ancient Sith, Broodica’s grimoire. At this time Doctryn had recruited a Gotal who he planned to make into his apprentice. Giving the Gotal the job of acquiring the grimoire as a test, Doctryn thought no more of it, and turned his attention to the actions of the pirate Tulak, who he was supporting in his pirate campaign, as that was helping justify further Federation security spending, as it was for all the other guilds, while putting pressure on the judicial forces and was stirring up an arms debate in the senate. Meanwhile the Gotal became embroiled in a bidding war with a Givin at the auction, with the two of them becoming more interested in their bickering than in the sale itself. The Jedi, who hadn’t intended for such a thing to fall into any hands but their own, won the deal, and the Jedi sent to acquire the book, Fay, watched in amusement as the two beings argued while she left with the book. The two continued to argue, blaming one another for the loss of the book. Despondent at his failure, the Gotal revealed to the Givin that acquiring the book had been his rite of passage. The Givin offered him a true Sith holocron as way of an apology, and the Gotal accepted, allowing the Givin to follow the Gotal back to the skyhook above Duro. Proudly presenting his master with the holocron, Doctryn, while disappointed not to have the grimoire, was delighted that his apprentice had discovered a valuable alternative. When his would be apprentice revealed that the seller claimed it to be the holocron of Darth Taral, Doctryn’s blood went cold.

As a member of the rule of two, none but the order should have known the true name of Darth Taral, and what was more, the last time he had seen the holocron was in the hands of his master when he had murdered him above Kiffex. Realising in a flash what that meant, Darth Axiom chose that moment to enter, murdering the young Gotal and greeted his former apprentice. Horrified that his master still lived, and furious at the loss of yet another possible apprentice, Doctryn sprang at his master, engaging Axiom in a vicious lightsaber duel. However, be it because Axiom had gotten weaker or because Doctryn had gotten stronger, the two battled each other to a standstill, and Doctryn, after exhausting himself, offered his master a drink and the two sat down as old friends. There, Axiom proposed a new course, in which there would be two masters, who would both act as both learner and student, each orchestrating the downfall of the Republic and the Jedi in their own ways, and when the time was right, the two of them would seek out an apprentice worthy of both of their knowledge. Agreeing to this compromise, the two Sith planned to work as equals and began to advance their plans.

While Axiom orchestrated the downfall of Clan Moxla on Kiffu, Doctryn still had the fallout of the destruction of the _Chu’unthor_ to capitalise on. With the loss of the academy and vital training resources, along with the masters and several apprentices to make use of them, the Jedi did not realise just how vulnerable they were and that was a situation that Doctryn intended to exploit. With the loss of such a centre of knowledge in the _Chu’unthor_ , the Jedi Council wished to create a new centre of learning which would fill the gap left by the destruction of the ship. To this end the Council wished to reinvigorate the enclave on Tython, which had been abandoned following the Great Galactic War. Appraised of the plans to revitalise the decayed ruin into a brand new praxeum, Doctryn began using the Sith funds to buy up the companies the Jedi were hiring for the project, intending to use that as a means to exploit the praxeum, to delay and if possible destroy it. For months he used his controlling but silent interest in the various companies to delay the project, exasperating the Jedi as they were trying to fill the void as quickly as possible. Under Doctryn’s guidance the construction was delayed and put on hold numerous times, or crawled along at a ridiculously slow pace, trying even the limits of Jedi patience, so much so that the Jedi got a senate advisory committee involved, to Doctryn’s disgust. With the companies taken to task, Doctryn was reluctantly forced to allow them to continue renovating the old temple that they were using, however this too played into his hands. With work now progressing apace, Doctryn travelled to Tython, feeling the dark side presence on the planet, and using his connection to the dark side to stimulate the local fauna against the builders and the Jedi team that was coordinating the final building efforts.

This however proved to be a mistake. While the Jedi and their work teams continued to oversee the reconstruction project, Doctryn travelled deeper into the planet, sensing a malevolent dark side presence. Seeking to divine the source of this power, and if possible utilise it against the Jedi, Doctryn explored the Tythos Ridge to discover a large crevice that had been damaged by the excavation efforts for the reconstruction. Entering the chasm, he then discovered hundreds of mutated Flesh Raiders. Mutated creatures brought to Tython by the Rakatans millennia ago, the creatures had been thought extinct following the Great Galactic War, but now had been awakened by the Jedi’s return. As Doctryn entered the chamber where the creatures had slumbered, they detected the power in the Force and awoke, eager to prey on Doctryn. After trying and failing to exert control over the monsters, Doctryn retreated and summoned his ship, just as the creatures began to swarm out of the chasm, revealing that hundreds still lived. Making good his escape he watched as the creatures, robbed of their original prey, surged outwards and hunted down the people at the excavation site. Not quite what he had in mind but still achieving his ends, Doctryn looked on in pleasure as the Jedi and their contractors were overwhelmed by the surging creatures. Pleased and slightly wary of returning to the planet, he retreated to the skyhook above Duro, where some time later it was announced that due to violent objections on the planet, the Jedi had decided not to rebuild the academy after several more deaths, and Doctryn was pleased with this development, particularly when he discovered that more Jedi lore had been lost when the Flesh Raiders had attacked those who went to Tython in order to ascertain what had originally happened and had left the ship bearing the learning materials behind.

Both Sith continued to cautiously accept the presence of the other, with their partnership working despite both of their private misgivings about the entire affair, with both of them teaching to and learning from the other. They would sometimes work together on plans, such as when they precipitated a small cold war between the Senex sector and the Republic over their use of slaves which made both factions nearly come to blows as the crimes against sentience that the Senex sector had committed became public knowledge, aided and abetted by the Sith who further stoked such high passions and prayed upon people’s feelings of disgust to make the public cry out for a hard response. While a true conflict was averted, thousands of Senex slaves were massacred as an example, and the Republic was made to look weak and inefficient as it could do nothing to prevent it, and it became clear that despite their laws they had no ability or desire to interfere where slaves where concerned, wherever they may live, which heightened resentment towards the Republic, particularly in the outer rim and it also made the judicial forces seem weak because had it came to a fight between the Senex sector and the Republic it would have not resulted in an easy victory had there been one at all.

Realising the flaws of the Republic judicial forces, both Axiom and Doctryn planned to humiliate them and also sever Republic and Jedi ties to other agencies that could help them should there be a crisis. To that end, the two Sith targeted the Antarian Rangers, who were a vital support network for the Jedi, and both Sith figured that if they could break the bonds between the Republic and the Rangers, it could seriously undermine the judicial forces on one hand, or on the other it could lead to greater militarisation either of which outcome suited the ends of the Sith.

For decades a vicious gang war had been ripping apart Socorro, aided and abetted by the agents of the Sith over the years. During that time it had led to many replacement senators, failed business opportunities, lucrative weapons contracts and other things that in some way aided the Sith plan. In addition many mediators be they diplomats, judicials, occasionally businessmen and even Jedi had been killed during the long struggles. With the proliferation of Fyodoi weapons, Axiom began smuggling those weapons to Socorro, seeking to provoke the situation to a boiling point. While he armed the warring gangs with more dangerous and deadly weapons, Doctryn provoked tensions on the planet, prompting anarchy to break out across the planet as the two factions vied for control. Left with no other choice, the Republic sent a judicial force led by the Jedi to try and end the conflict. Doctryn also requested that the Antarian Rangers lend a hand, bringing yet another well armed faction into such a volatile situation. With the factions present the two Sith began to provoke the two factions who the judicials and the Jedi had finally gotten to agree to peace talks. However the Sith between them had leaked the information about the import of the Fyodoi weapons to the rangers, relying that the leader of the group, an older human by the name of Octavar Pypper, to get to the bottom of the matter. While the diplomatic team attempted to resolve the gang violence, Pypper and the rangers discovered a weapons cache full of Fyodoi weapons that had been planted with the Republic forces. Armed with false planted intelligence that the rangers believed, they traced it back to the judicial forces, making it seem as though the judicials themselves were stimulating the conflict for the Republic’s own ends in order to get their hands on the carbon that was present on the planet which could be mined for a variety of purposes. Armed with this evidence, the rangers entered the summit to arrest the judicials and confronted the Republic team upon their supposed causing of the gang war to allow the Republic to exploit the carbon mining operation.

Enraged by the so called deception, the gangs began to quibble just as progress was about to be made. While the Jedi tried to reason with the rangers and explain that it was a set up, a Defel ranger apprentice named Zik’la observed one of the Jedi, the Baragwin apprentice of the Feeorin Jedi in charge of the mission, Oltel Martoom and Rir respectively, reaching for her lightsaber, clearly sensing the anger in the crowd. Panicking, the Defel shot at the Jedi, who ignited her saber to block the attack, but the speed and angle of the attack meant she couldn’t control the trajectory and the bolt hit Pypper in the chest. Frantic at seeing their leader fall and with the gangs now opening fire on the Republic team, the entire thing devolved into a brawl while the rangers evacuated their leader. As the Jedi and the judicials retreated through a civil war, the rangers fell back to their ship, where Pypper encouraged them not to allow the Republic to get away with this before dying. Blaming himself for Pypper’s death, Zik’la took off as the rangers returned to their ship, also battling through the wartorn streets to get back to their ships. Another ranger, Pypper’s partner, noticed that the apprentice had disappeared and chased after him. A Sephi woman, she caught up with him and tried to talk him down. Terrified that he was going to be locked in prison or executed, or worse that he will be sent to the Jedi temple when he was terrified of the Jedi, she assured him that they would smooth it all out when she was suddenly wrenched into the air and crushed with the Force.

Zik’la, terrified, turned to see Darth Doctryn arrive. His curiosity aroused by the sheer unbridled anger pulsing through the young Defel, Doctryn had a conversation with the Defel, learning that the teenage Defel had watched his parents get killed by a Jedi who had also wounded him, cleaving off half his hand and giving him a passionate hatred. A problem child hed travelled around until Pypper found him and recruited him into the rangers. Blaming the Jedi for what had now transpired, Doctryn offered him the chance to strike back at the Jedi and at the Republic, which he accepted and became Doctryn’s unofficial apprentice, who spirited him back to his ship as Vakeyya erupted into full scale war with the overpowered Fyodoi weapons ripping apart the city as the judicials and the Jedi retreated, with the remaining rangers on their tails. Doctryn met Axiom at his ship and with the young Defel they left the planet, pursuing the fleeing officials. The rangers attempted to reason with the judicials, claiming that things had gotten out of hand and that if they stood down they could sort it all out. The Jedi refused, claiming correctly that it was a set up, but due to the fallout of the incident on the planet, they refused to acquiesce to the rangers demands and made to escape to hyperspace. Feeling they had no other choice, the rangers opened fire on the judicial ship, destroying the engines and causing significant damage, which killed several judicials and Jedi. The fleeing ship fired an escape pod into the ranger ship as it approached, destroying part of the ranger ship which resulted in a tense stand off between the two ships. Pleased with their work, the Sith made good their escape.

The entire operation had been an unmitigated success for the Sith. While acting within the law and their mandate, the rangers had technically overstepped the line in their actions and had been severely rebuked by the Republic, as they hadn’t bothered to investigate further, though the senator for Antar IV and Master Rir argued in their favour that they would have seen no reason to. The rangers as a result were humiliated, their funding cut, and were restricted solely to the outer rim and had a significant loss of Republic patronage. The mission had also claimed the lives of seven rangers, in actuality only six, but it as still a humiliating loss for the rangers. The Jedi and judicials were also humiliated and rebuked for the entire debacle, as their failure to reach a compromise and their rash call to arms helped provoke the civil war that now engulfed Socorro, and their failure to cooperate led to several deaths and a conflict that could have been avoided. The judicial department was heavily sanctioned and caused great unrest, the militarists in the senate were emboldened in their cries for greater power arguing that this proved that they needed better equipment and firepower which led to a militarisation of the judicial forces, judicials and Jedi had died and the Jedi, as with the rangers, were now humiliated and rebuked and sanctioned by the Republic. The actions of the rangers in firing on the judicial ship however allowed the militarists who argued that should trouble arrive the Republic’s representatives has no way of defending themselves, led by the Kuati senator Ledwin Faal, to increase the number and strength of judicial ships, leading to a new and improved wave of _Invincible_ class dreadnaughts being created and creating a more powerful security force, which in turn allowed for a retroactive improvement of planetary defence forces and patrols. Having achieved his ends and made a more potent Republic force for what was to come and weakened a useful ally of the Republic and the Jedi, Doctryn and Axiom could now turn their attention to their new apprentice. The Defel, who they decided to call Darth Spectyr was a good apprentice, and having already been instilled with the necessary discipline by the rangers, he quickly took to his studies. As he was the first apprentice throughout the whole Rule of Two to have two masters, both sides were keen to avoid making him too powerful, or to giving the other one too much influence over their young student. Realising, correctly, that while their partnership had proved quite fruitful since Axiom’s return, they were now defiling the Rule of Two, and eventually they would have to either take one another out or allow Spectyr to take one out, in order to continue with the tradition set down by Darth Bane. As such both masters taught Spectyr, each of them playing off against the other and using him as a minion in their games against one another, realising that Spectyr was the one who held the whole fate of the Sith in his hands

Throughout his training, Axiom focused more on teaching Spectyr the mental capabilities of the Force, increasing his knowledge in Force powers and helping him with foresight and insight. Doctryn meanwhile taught him of the plan, of cunning and manipulation, while both together focused on training his combat and resilience capabilities in preparation for his eventual takeover. While they spent much of their time training Spectyr, they also continued to advance the plans of the Sith. They helped the pirate Tulak become more of a threat, they manufactured an economic crisis in the Senex sector which in turn caused problems for the Republic, they thwarted the rise of an independent trade company that could have posed a threat to the Trade Federation, created a small droid revolt which embroiled the Republic and the Jedi and sabotaged a Wookiee colony attempt which threw the entire system into turmoil.

Their final actions came with the Metalorn debacle. Drilling operations on the planets rogue moon had uncovered the fact that it had a significant carbon ore deposit in the core of the moon. As the contract for digging out the moon was only leased to the Trade Federation for them to do the dirty work, the Techno Union believed it was by rights theirs. The Federation disagreed and made their own claim upon the moon. The two Sith masters, watched carefully by their apprentice, planned to take advantage of this. The Annoo-Dat civil war was still raging and the Sith planned to tip the balance of the conflict by hiring out a private army of droids which would in turn end the war that had nearly achieved its desired goal. To build the droid army they needed they required the ore from the moon. Axiom wanted the Federation to get it, arguing that with the power of the Federation behind it they could use it to discreetly raise the numbers of security forces it had and make it once again more powerful, while Doctryn argued that the Techno Union should receive the contract to mine the moon, partly as it was legally theirs and also to offset the Federation and to prevent them from becoming too powerful, along with making sure that should the Federation go wrong there would be a potential backup. To that end, they both relied on Spectyr to be their go between and relied on him to fulfil their wishes.

Things however took a turn for the worst. Both the Federation and the Techno Union arrived at the moon, and the tense situation above the satellite led to a standoff but the union landed forces on the moon to begin mining. The Federation backed away yet the mining station was sabotaged during the night which led to a brawl between the two ships, which resulted in the Republic arriving to mediate and they assumed full control of the moon for a period of months, delaying the plans of the two guilds, and worse, both Sith.

Discovering that the Federation had sabotaged the Techno Union bid, Doctryn was furious, and Axiom was furious that the Union had taken such actions. Enraged, and with their partnership having been deteriorating particularly violently since recruiting Spectyr, the two Sith masters confronted each other in the hangar bay of their skyhook, and began to engage each other in a duel to the death. However as they yelled abuse at each other, both accusing the other of sabotaging their efforts, it started to dawn on them that the other was telling the truth. Halting their duel the two Sith realised that Spectyr had lied to both of them and was manipulating them into annihilating the other. As they came to that realisation, Spectyr remotely fired a proton missile from his Starfighter that destroyed both their ships and trapped both Sith under several tons of rubble. Both Axiom and Doctryn realised their end had come as Spectyr approached, and proclaimed that as they had violated the Rule of Two, they were no longer fit to be Sith and that he was now the sole master. As both Axiom and Doctryn begged him to spare at least one of them, he ripped open both their throats and finally killed both Sith before boarding his ship and leaving the skyhook, destroying it and making good his escape as the sole Sith with all the Sith lore he could carry and assumed mastery of the Grand Plan.

****

** Darth Spectyr **

Species: Defel male

Birth name: Zik’la  
Reign: 332 BBY-329 BBY, 329 BBY-263 BBY  
Info: The son of two murderers, his parents were a criminal duo who had fallen in love and had a child, and even from a young age he was taught how to hunt and kill sentient beings, taking pleasure in the joy of the hunt. However before his parents lessons could truly sink in, they attracted the ire of the Jedi Polvin Kut who tracked down the two killers and brought them to justice, without realising that their son was present. Horrified to see his parents slaughtered, the boy sprang at Kut who reacted instinctively and maimed his hand, and the boy fled.

Drifting around for years, he was seen as a problem child until he found solace in a kindly Antarian Ranger by the name of Octavar Pypper. Pypper took him as his apprentice, and helped him, through meditation and kindness, to control his violent and sometimes psychotic temper. Traumatised as he was by the Jedi, Pypper had planned to leave him behind when events went further south on the planet Socorro, resulting in a joint Jedi and Ranger mission to try to end the violent gang wars that wracked the planet. However, Fyodoi weapons began to proliferate the planet making the situation even more volatile and as a result Pypper took what Rangers he could and headed to help negotiate the dispute. Arriving on the planet, they were unknowingly manipulated by the Dark Lords of the Sith, who planted dangerous Fyodoi weapons on the Republic judicial party and tipped the Rangers off to the fact that the Republic was planning to proliferate more of the weapons to continue the gang war and exploit the heavy carbon deposits on the planet. Confronted with this evidence, the Rangers, as a precaution, intended to confront the Jedi and Republic party and they entered the negotiation room. When confronted by the Rangers, and with emotions already heightened, the Baragwin Jedi apprentice to the Feeorin Jedi in charge of the mission moved to ensure her lightsaber was where it was meant to be. Flashing back to the murder of his parents, the boy panicked and fired at the Jedi, fearing the same was about to happen here. Martoom hastily deflected the bolt before it hit her, but she accidentally deflected it into the chest of Pypper. As he fell the entire negotiation fell into chaos as the factions came to blows. Evacuating Pypper, Zik’la looked on in horror as his mentor and father figure died and he fled, fearing the Rangers would turn on him. As Pypper’s partner pursued him, he encountered a Rodian, who killed the Sephi woman pursuing him, and revealed himself to be Darth Doctryn, one of the two Sith Lords who had orchestrated the entire affair. Sensing the strong power of the dark side flowing through the young Defel, Doctryn offered him a way off planet and of leaving his old life behind, and joining with Darth Axiom they escaped the planet, with the Defel boy as their new joint apprentice.

As both Axiom and Doctryn were masters, Zik’la, or as he was now known, Darth Spectyr, was the first Sith in nearly a millennia with two masters. Spectyr quickly picked up on the fact that while the two Sith had seemed amicable up to that point, his arrival had changed their dynamic and it now seemed like both Sith were vying for his loyalty. However in the beginning, the two worked together to improve upon his teaching, so while Axiom taught him to use the Force and develop his awareness and abilities to perceive events, Doctryn taught him the history of the Sith and the nature of the plan, teaching him cunning and manipulation. The two Sith masters worked together to teach him combat, presiding over his lightsaber construction and teaching him to use Juyo in battle. An able apprentice, Spectyr quickly became a proficient apprentice. One night, without the knowledge of his masters, he slipped from his quarters on the skyhook and called the previous Sith Lords from their holocrons. Confronting the Sith of old, he asked the question that had plagued him: if there can only be two Sith at any one time, how was it that he had two masters? Darth Zannah denounced their actions and said they had fallen off the path of the true Sith, and that it would be up to him to restore the Rule of Two to its rightful state, a task which he viewed as sacrosanct.

Spectyr however was torn between the two. Both Sith masters continually advanced the Grand Plan in their own unique ways, and both were highly proficient masters of the Force and excellent teachers. His problem was twofold, as both Sith kept their own plans to themselves, when he inevitably killed them he would be losing the manipulations, skill and cunning of one master possibly to the detriment of the plan which Doctryn had instilled in him a loyalty to above all, and, as both were such powerful Sith how could he feel like he deserved the role of Dark Lord of the Sith if he had to rely on the one he chose to keep as his master to help him kill the other. And then, even when one was dead, the other would constantly be on the lookout for a threat from the apprentice that had killed the master. The way Spectyr saw it, he was trapped, he either jeopardised the Grand Plan, jeopardised his right to rule as the Dark Lord of the Sith or risked his life as whichever master he sided with would always be on the lookout for his apprentice moving against him. However, it was Darth Doctryn who accidentally paved the way forward, when he told him about his previous failed apprentices. The two failed as they challenged someone stronger than them together rather than turn on each other, and Spectyr began to realise just how he could become the true Dark Lord of the Sith and end the needless duality of the Rule of Two.

Throughout his apprenticeship both Sith used him to further their plans, and by so doing, Spectyr gained knowledge of the workings of the various corporations that were integral to the Sith plans, and also made contact with various allies and minions of the Sith. Learning throughout his apprenticeship, Spectyr was very methodical and learned everything he could, and was used to further both his masters aims in various flashpoints, and through learning at both of their feet he learned how both plans could lead to the inevitable success of the Sith imperative. He asked many questions, appearing innocent while actually squirreling away the information as he prepared for his own takeover. He assisted in the sabotage of the Wookiee colony, and also helped make the warlord Tulak into a much bigger threat, and during all this he was used as an intermediary by his masters, not just to their agents, but each other as well, and Spectyr at last perceived that his time had come when both Sith turned their attention to Metalorn, though favouring opposite sides of the conflict. Through careful manipulation of misinformation, he forced the two masters into a conflict, setting it up so that it looked like the other was the one responsible for the failure of their plans. When events came to a head with neither master getting what they wanted, Spectyr prepared to destroy the two Sith masters. As they furiously confronted each other upon their return to the skyhook, the two began to duel. Fascinated by this final display of their power, Spectyr watched until the two masters slowed, coming to the realisation that both were actually telling the truth in their denials. As realisation dawned, Spectyr activated his ships missile battery and destroyed the hangar, trapping both masters under tons of rubble. Both masters commended him, each urging him to kill the other. Spectyr then claimed that neither of them had anything left to teach him and killed them both, assuming the role of Dark Lord of the Sith and restoring the Rule of Two to its true glory. Abandoning the skyhook, he destroyed it, taking all the lore and history with him and ventured out into the galaxy.

He began his reign by honouring the tradition of going to a less developed planet and immersing himself in the power of the dark side. For over a year he stayed on the planet he chose, slaughtering creatures and natives while becoming more attuned to the nature of the dark side, using his ship as a means of keeping in contact with his networks and informants throughout the galaxy. Upon the completion of his year, he left the planet and made his home on Malrev IV, using the dark side temple there to bolster his power, and kept his skills sharp by hunting the Irrukiine. The locals held some interest for them, and he spent much time applying the power of the dark side to them in an effort to domesticate them into the service of the Sith. While his efforts proved fruitless, he did discover that by meddling with their brains he could create virtually unstoppable berserkers, which was something he filed away for later use.

Spectyr’s first mission was to end the war of the Annoo-Dat, who had been fighting a violent civil war for much of the rule of Darth Doctryn. After years of war, Annoo itself was now nothing more than a desolate wasteland and was uninhabitable. As the Annoo-Dat flailed in panic, Spectyr contacted what was left of their leadership, encouraging them to move onto the nearby world of Gelefil. While the leadership was initially sceptical, Spectyr reasoned that if they did not leave the world, they would soon die out. While the Annoo-Dat remained reticent, not wanting to bring war to another planet when they had already destroyed their own, Spectyr took matters into his own hands. Realising that the Annoo-Dat could one day be useful to the Sith, as their talent for warfare and their resentment for the Republic could be used later, he needed to get them off their planet before their own hubris allowed for the extinction of the species. As a reptilian species, they had many enemies as it was, and what was more, their long exhausting civil war had concerned various powers within the galaxy, all of which Spectyr intended to use in order to bring the Annoo-Dat around to his way of thinking. The militarists in the senate had watched the conflict on Annoo with some interest, while some regarded it as a potential trouble spot that could lead to a wider conflict, others were looking on in fascination, admiring the scale of the civil war and the skill of the Annoo-Dat in their pursuit of victory. The militarists as a result were keen for any form of intervention, and Spectyr used this to his advantage. In his guise as a shadowy wraith, he infiltrated the dreams of various people, using the dark side nexus of the temple he was making his home to boost his powers at inserting himself into his victim’s subconscious. He contacted the leader of the Ret people, who made their home on Gelefil, and encouraged them to invite the Annoo-Dat to Gelefil in order to rehome them. While the leader of the Ret was originally sceptical, Spectyr continued his nightly visions, slowly fraying at the Ret leader’s sanity and good sense, and as a result, he eventually caved and agreed to send an envoy to Annoo. The Ret landed on Annoo, however the Annoo-Dat, feared it was the beginning of an invasion, a group that intended to slaughter an exhausted and nearly defenceless people. Continuing his skill in dream insertion, every time the Annoo or the Ret slept, Spectyr would call upon the vast power of Malrev IV, using wraiths, Force spectres and dream insertion to achieve his goals. By doing so with a few choice individuals, he persuaded the Annoo leadership to take the envoy ship, killing the crew, and launch an attack on Gelefil. A strike team then assumed control of the envoy ship, flying to Gelefil. Upon hearing of the rich and lush world that the Ret occupied, the Annoo made the decision to abandon their planet, and began an all-out attack on Gelefil, their ships descending across the planet and conquering it with ease, with the Ret putting up only minimal resistance, and hence agreeing to share the planet as the two nations began to amalgamate.

The militarists used this as evidence that the Republic had to intervene, arguing that the Ret were being held hostage. While the Ret protested, arguing that despite the Annoo-Dat’s belligerent actions, they were perfectly happy share the planet with them, a task force was assembled to try and force the Annoo-Dat into a new treaty that would see them as little more as guests. This played into the hands of Darth Spectyr, who knew that the whole affair would wind up being a humiliation for the Republic, and the Republic was headed by a taskforce of Judicials and Jedi. To their great surprise however, as Spectyr had predicted, the Ret, incensed by the Republic’s invasion of their home when they had warned the Republic that they were happy to share their planet, joined forces, converting the ships of the Annoo-Dat and joining forces with their new neighbours, and a bloody struggle developed on the planet, resulting in the destruction of the Republic flagship, an _Invincible_ class dreadnaught, the _Liberation_ , and the death of the commanding Jedi Council member, Feeorin master Rir, along with the death of the Judicial Head of Personnel, along with six more Jedi and many Judicials. After the successful destruction of the Republic flagship, the Ret and Annoo-Dat invited the highest ranking member of the task force down, who happened to be Rir’s former apprentice Oltel Martoom, and the Ret and Annoo presented their treaty for sharing the planet, and realising that the Ret hadn’t been coerced at all and that the entire affair was a waste of time and lives, the Republic reluctantly retreated. Spectyr was delighted with the fallout, as the Republic had been humiliated, and powerful battlecruiser had been lost (lending more support to the Militarists within the Senate that a more powerful navy was needed, despite the humiliation they had been dealt), the Judicials had lost one of their commanders which allowed Spectyr to manipulate the ascension of a replacement who was not fit for the job, which further weakened the department, and a Jedi council member had been killed, giving him some measure of revenge against Martoom and in addition the other Jedi had been killed, making the whole thing a significant victory. With the situation on Gelefil, now renamed Annoo, now resolved, Spectyr was able to focus his attention on other matters, however while meditating in the temple on Malrev IV his gaze was drawn to the planet of Ord Cestus.

A former ordinance depot, the planet was currently accessing the Republic. Mystified as to the reason that the Force would nudge him in this direction, he was even further perplexed when he realised that the planet was to become a prison planet, akin to Kessel, under the guidance of the Republic, and that the X’Ting natives were more than willing to allow this to go ahead. Curious as to what was to transpire on the planet, he headed to the planet itself, seeking to divine an answer. However, present on the planet was Jedi Oltel Martoom, once again interceding in Spectyr’s affairs. Spying on her as she worked with the Judicial department and the local X’Ting to begin construction of the prison, he overheard the locals asking her who their first prisoners were likely to be. Martoom then revealed that a fellow Jedi Council member, of which she was now a member, a Koorivar by the name of Craysol Medthe, was in the Corporate Sector, investigating reports of suspicious goings on in Cybot Galactica. Coming to the realisation that this was why he had been pointed towards Ord Cestus, Spectyr set himself up on the planet, though being mindful to avoid the presence of the Jedi and contacted his agents to divine the reasons behind the investigation. After being informed by his agents that Cybot Galactica was making tremendous losses despite being one of the two biggest droid manufacturers in the galaxy, Spectyr’s curiosity was piqued. The health and safety budget had been steadily declining the most throughout the whole company, all of which was reporting massive losses, despite the strength of the economy and the arrival of several new products, Spectyr was fascinated to learn that the whole of Cybot seemed to be basing its current actions upon a lie. Contacting the twelve member board of directors, and fearing that the collapse of such a large company like Cybot Galactica could have too far ranging implications for him to counteract, and wanting such a large droid manufacturer to be left whole should they one day be of use to the Grand Plan, he confronted the directors, who scoffed and dismissed him as a crank. Irritated he threatened each of them with the Force, immobilising them and torturing them until they told him what he wanted to know, which led to their reveal that they were embezzling funds throughout the company, putting half of the Corporate Sector’s workforce at risk, along with jeopardising the entire galactic economy as it would undoubtedly lead to more revelations throughout the galaxy, and also thwarting potential uses that the Sith might have for the company. After implying that they should stop, to which they refused and managed to cut the transmission, Spectyr was now left with a large problem. If the board was allowed to continue, they could destabilise the economy of the entirety of the Core and the Corporate Sector, not to mention losing millions of jobs and potentially depriving the Sith of what could be a useful resource. Following the edicts of the dark side, he contacted his agents, and had them sabotage the main construction factory on Etti IV, leading to a massive industrial accident that killed hundreds and poisoned the local water supply. As protestors took to the streets to protest about Cybot’s working practices, Spectyr tipped off Master Medthe through one of his agents, allowing the Koorivar to investigate the embezzlement scandal. By so doing, the news of the entire scandal broke, and an incensed populace demanded the arrest of all twelve executives, who were found guilty in a trial over the course of two years (also pointing out that the Republic was becoming bloated and corrupt since it took so long despite public outcry) and sentenced to prison on Ord Cestus. Satisfied, and divining that Ord Cestus may be of later use to the Sith, Spectyr withdrew from the planet.

Over the next decade, Spectyr kept a close eye on galactic affairs, while scouring the galaxy for a potential apprentice. Stoking outer rim resentment and facilitating incompetence, decadence and corruption, he became largely contemplative of his role as a Sith, seeking to advance his aims through more quiet means. To this end, over the next ten years he continued to make the Advosze warlord Tulak a force to be feared, surrounding him with mercenaries and followers, while using his political connections and judicial connections to ensure that no one would go after him. He also continued to stoke increasing resentment on Corellia, where people were beginning to pull away from the absolute monarchy that previously existed. Stoking these tensions and prompting riots and protests across the planet, while encouraging the hardliners in the senate who wished to end the growing insurrections against the king lest Corellia cause yet more problems for the Republic, Spectyr was caught by surprise when the Corellian king Berethon e Solo decided, despite Spectyr’s plans, to introduce a constitutional monarchy. Caught off-guard, Spectyr nonetheless adapted to this, removing his agitators, though he was slightly vexed that he wasn’t able to further the plans of the militarists. He also helped orchestrate the Kuati Succession Crisis, which saw KDY thrown into chaos as the CEO of Kuat was murdered by her rivals.

The warlord Tulak, who Spectyr had been sponsoring for quite some time, had now become such a potent threat that the Republic, and the Jedi, could no longer ignore him, and as a result, Polvin Kut was sent to Koba with his apprentice Yaddle to bring an end to the Sith backed warlord. Forewarned to the attempted mission by his spies, Spectyr tipped Tulak off, which led to the imprisonment of Yaddle and the death of her master. Spectyr was curious about the young Jedi, and would visit where she was entombed on Koba, never revealing himself to her senses but keeping watch on her all the same. He continued with his plans during this, doing little things to advance the plans of the Sith, while beginning to earnestly search for an apprentice. It was during this time that his agents made him aware of the rising power of a new spy organisation, the Bothan Spynet. Debating with himself whether or not he should end the organisation, he elected to allow it to stand, figuring it could always be made to serve the ends of the Sith. He also kept an eye on the Nozho-Weogar War on Clak’dor VII, ensuring that the conflict did not spread to surrounding systems and made careful note about the nature of the chemical warfare used on the planet, setting aside the data for potential later use.

It wasn’t for some time later, during the Houk colonisation of Sriluur that Spectyr discovered his apprentice. Stimulating a slight conflict on the planet surface between the Houk settlers and the local Weequay, this attracted the attention on a local Hutt gangster. As Sriluur remained a large part of the Hutt’s hegemony, the crime lord Baldesh the Hutt, was less than impressed about the potential loss of business and henchmen caused by the border skirmishes fought between the two species. As such, he mobilised his entire crime gang and invaded the planet, determined to end the conflict. Spectyr, who was on the planet to feed off the chaos caused by the conflict, took note of the Hutt incursion. While not necessarily bothered, as a widening conflict could potentially lead to Republic involvement which would in turn be adapted for Sith use, his gaze was drawn to the Hutt’s majordomo, a young human male. Curious as to his presence, due to his youth, his species and the feeling of strong Force potential coming from him, Spectyr surveyed the young man, watching as he instructed Baldesh to withdraw his forces, as his men were being hammered by combatants on both sides of the conflict, and warning that any potential profits would be nullified. As the Hutt force continued to force back both Houk and Weequay forces, Spectyr, now in the midst of the contested territory, sought out the boy. Catching up to him in a Weequay temple, Spectyr approached the youth, and questioned him on his presence and his role with the Hutt. Revealing that he was once a street urchin on the streets of Nar Shaddaa, he once managed to pickpocket the entirety of the Hutt’s entourage. Amused by the boy’s sheer audacity, Baldesh gave him a job, and determined to stay alive, and to prove himself to the Hutt, he worked his way up the organisation, and conveniently managed to assassinate anyone who got in his way. Impressed, Spectyr learned that the boy had argued against his master coming here, because his master had worked out a deal with the Techno Union in order to mine the copper under the contested area, along with making sure the Houks and Weequay remained in line as much as possible. Arguing that it would be a waste of time, life and resources, it was clear to the Dark Lord that the boy was looking for something new, as the Hutt was too stubborn to listen and he had great ambition. Spectyr promised to see the boy again, after promising that people other than the Hutt would better appreciate the boy’s natural talents, and that it would be unfortunate if the Hutt got caught up in the local fighting. The boy was alarmed, but on his gut instinct did not alert his master, and instead waited for Spectyr to once again seek him out.

Spectyr however to see exactly how ambitious the young man was. Throughout their meeting he had been careful to offer only vague hints of what he could provide the boy, giving him just enough to whet his appetite, and he was curious to see if the boy would perform to his expectations, and seek out Spectyr for more information. At his camp however, Spectyr was shocked to discover the young man waiting for him, and he asked exactly what he could offer and if he was serious. Taken aback, Spectyr promised him he was serious and offered wealth, power and strength, and the boy admitted his relief, and asked if he had a ship. Spectyr agreed, and led him to his ship as a drone ship descended towards the camp. Taking off just in time, there was a flare in the Force as the drone dropped a plasma bomb, obliterating the camp and killing the Hutt, his entire entourage and the warring Houks and Weequay. Greatly impressed by the boy’s ambition and clear, surgical thinking, Spectyr revealed himself to be a Sith Lord and offered him the role of apprentice, which the boy accepted becoming Darth Videion.

Taking Videion as his apprentice, Spectyr began to teach him the ways of the Force, and more importantly filled him with an almost zealot like loyalty to the Rule of Two, branding both Axiom and Doctryn as heretics for deviating from the blueprint set down by Darth Bane. Between the two of them, they were responsible for sabotaging the attempted colonisation of Bestine by the Kian’thar, which they did to weaken an economically unstable Republic. The slight recession caused a run on the credit, which worked to undermine the militarist Supreme Chancellor, who had been behind a plan to create a prototype Republic navy, which would involve each sector having it’s own _Invincible_ class heavy dreadnaught. To the slight relief of the Sith, the plan couldn’t go forward as the economy wouldn’t keep up with it, and working through his agents, Spectyr advised that they wait, as despite the decline in the economy there was a technological boom, and they argued that they would soon be able to create more powerful warships.

The two Sith then turned their focus to the Trade Federation, which had been trundling along quite nicely thanks to the machinations of Darth Axiom. However, the warlord Tulak, who had now been replaced by his son Kalut, had increased his attacks on Trade Federation vessels, and knowing of how vital the Federation was to the overall Sith plan the Sith decided to become involved. Rather than allow Kalut, who was still a useful minion and was lasting proof of the ineffectiveness of the Republic, to be destroyed by the Republic, the two Sith decided to further advance the power of the Trade Federation. Inciting Kalut to prey on the flagship of the Trade Federation Directorate, which was a deviation from his usual tactics itself as he rarely ventured so far out of his own space, the resulting attack provoked the ire of the Federation. The Directorate then beseeched the senate to do something about Kalut’s continuing attacks, or else allow them to expand their own forces into an outright military organisation that would be able to protect their ships and holdings. Refusing the Federation’s demands, the senate asked the Jedi and Judicials to form a taskforce, which played right into the hands of the Sith.

Spectyr alerted Kalut to the numbers of Republic ships that would be coming after him, and concerned, the Advozse demanded to know how he was going to get out of that one. Spectyr then informed him that he and his apprentice would assist him. Videion, determined to prove himself, argued that now was the time to reveal themselves to the Jedi. Spectyr however refused, saying that this was not yet the time. However, he then cheered his apprentice by saying that while this wasn’t yet the time to move altogether that didn’t mean they couldn’t have some fun and kill some Jedi provided they made sure none escaped. Hiring a small band of mercenaries, the two Sith reported to the group and prepared to ambush the Republic force. Kalut was still panicking that he would be captured, but as the Republic task force arrived and his own forces moved to intercept them, Spectyr dropped out of hyperspace with the mercenary ships, and between them, manning their powerful custom built starfighters, the two Sith led the combined forces in a rout of the Republic task force, killing four Jedi pilots and destroying the command ship with a further Jedi who was proficient with battle meditation on board. With the Republic humiliated and their task force routed, the senate admitted defeat and allowed the Trade Federation to create the Trade Defence Force, allowing yet another increase in military might and giving them military sustainability outside of the Republic. The militarists were also further emboldened, claiming pirates like this wouldn’t exist if they had a strong military, and that led to demands for more powerful vessels for the Republic, and the _Procurator_ class battlecruiser began to come into being. The TDF was tipped off by Spectyr, and the combined fleet ambushed the mercs that Spectyr had hired and significantly reduced Kalut’s fighting capability, giving them credence as a military alternative to the Republic and further humiliating the Republic.

Continuing to train his apprentice, Spectyr began to realise that Videion would soon want to challenge him for mastery of the Sith, as his ambition had only grown over the years. Events moved towards Toprawa, as tensions started to mount in the outer rim. The Core was becoming concerned with the Federation’s precedent in now having its own military force, and the other guilds now wanted to follow suit, something that the senate was keen to avoid. However, as the designs for the new _Procurator_ class battlecruiser languished in developmental hell, and with Kalut and other pirates and mercenaries committing crimes of opportunity, cries were increasing for a more centralised form of protection, or otherwise for the guilds to act as a further security force. Spectyr carefully stoked these tensions, knowing that while this was the eventual plan, they couldn’t be allowed to move in such a way quite yet. The judicials were spread thin, and the Jedi couldn’t cope, however the senate didn’t want to begin to allow private companies and trade guilds to police the galaxy, fearing it could lead to abuses of power, however with the security forces in the current state, their chances weren’t entirely good. Keen to avoid having to allow the guilds to act as their own police, and trying to avoid a decline in power of the Republic security forces, Supreme Chancellor Thotath, in consultation with Master Yoda and Oltel Martoom, decided to try a new venture: to supplement the power of the judicials and the Jedi by further arming groups such as the Antarian Rangers. The reason for this was twofold, it would allow the Republic to have a stronger presence without actively arming or increasing the power of their own forces, and they could rely on factions they could trust rather than relying on the various guilds to provided security for the outer reaches. Furthermore, it would hopefully repair tensions between the Jedi and the Rangers, and as a result, cement the Rangers as a valuable asset and allow them to follow up with other such groups.

The two Sith as a result decided to turn their attention to Toprawa, where Oltel Martoom was meeting with the Antarian Rangers. Seeking to prevent the militarisation of paramilitary groups as it could potentially impact the uses of the guilds in future, the two Sith were determined to sabotage the meeting. Martoom was to meet with the chapter president of the rangers on Toprawa, and as such the two Sith would need to intervene. Infiltrating the planet, the two Sith got a sense for just how much the rangers mistrusted the Jedi following the last falling out, and Spectyr realised how best to bring about a further disagreement between the two factions. Martoom’s arrival was already seen as a smack in the face, as many rangers blamed her for their current state of affairs, to her utter dismay. As she sat down to negotiate with them, the leader of the Toprawa faction, an Ishi Tib named Guun Cuul, told her he remembered her igniting her lightsaber and hence killing Pypper years before. During the first days of negotiations, there was no progress at all with the rangers being too angry to listen to her entreaties. Martoom concluded the day’s negotiations with the information of what they stood to gain, access to new ships and equipment, endorsement and support from the Republic and the Jedi, and a clean slate. With her gone, Cuul began to seriously consider the offer, realising that this could very well be what they were after, true legitimacy which would in turn allow them to more effectively carry out their duties.

Realising that a major intergalactic incident was what would be required, Spectyr identified another member of the ranger team, Olyvar Pypper, grandson to the ranger who trained him. Telling Videion to seek out the boy, Spectyr waited for his apprentice’s success. Videion talked with the young man, who as Spectyr had suspected, was furious that the Jedi who had killed his grandfather was the one who was leading the negotiations. He and his friends were sitting and drinking, and Olyvar was getting angrier and angrier as he got more and more drunk. Videion then began to tell him that the Jedi was only here to bring the rangers under control, to make them as little more than an outpost for Republic desires. Enraged, Pypper stormed off with his friends to find Martoom.

The young rangers stormed into where Martoom was staying, only to find Cuul entering into a private negotiation with her. Cuul then stalled the boys, telling them that this wasn’t the way, and that this deal could greatly improve everything. Unbidden by Cuul, Oltel then greeted Olyvar, and apologised for the pain she had caused, and for the deterioration of their two sides relationship due to her rash actions. Using his nascent sensitivity to the Force to see how genuinely remorseful she was, they stood down, and admitted that they were goaded into this by a young man. Concerned, Oltel and Cuul rallied the groups, and shut down the spaceport, intending to find the instigators of this plot, who were clearly trying to cause major problems for both sides.

Cursing their luck, the two Sith prepared to escape. However with the entire place locked down, the two Sith were trapped, with the rangers and Oltel closing in. Having no access to their own ship, the two Sith decided to head to the new cruiser which Oltel had arrived on instead. However as they did so, Spectyr came to a stop, seeing a statue dedicated to his mentor, the original Pypper. His wards briefly dropping, Oltel sensed him and she and the rangers moved towards the new _Arbitrator_ class cruiser. The two Sith arrived at the hangar to find Oltel and over three dozen rangers waiting for them. Confronting them, Oltel realised who Spectyr was, recognising him from their last encounter. Snarling, Spectyr prepared to confront her, and it was then that she truly sensed what he was, and horrified to learn the Sith still existed, she ordered the rangers to attack while she herself engaged the Dark Lord, appealing to him to try and redeem him. As the two duelled, Videion was left to battle the rangers, who were now arming the new starfighters and the cruiser to help kill the two Sith. Clearly overwhelmed by the superior numbers and firepower, Videion leapt to his master’s aid, joining in the duel against the Jedi who was able to hold her own against the two while staying the hands of the rangers who were afraid to hit the Jedi. Oltel then moved away, giving the cruisers a clear shot at the Sith, and the two Sith were forced into a small control room off the hangar bay, trapping them inside. Oltel, horrified to realise that the Sith still existed, urgently tried to contact Coruscant and the rest of the council, while the _Arbitrator_ class cruiser moved to end the Sith.

The defence guns of the hangar then opened fire, scattering the rangers as Videion took control of the security systems. Thrown by the distraction, Spectyr then reached out with the Force and took control of the cruiser’s controls, jamming them down and crashing the cruiser into the ground, killing the pilots and further scattering the rangers. Using the security system, the turrets were used by Videion to destroy the fuel cells of the cruiser, exploding the entire cruiser and killing most of the rangers. Exhausted, the two Sith made good their escape until the three starfighters came swooping in, and Cuul, Pypper and the remaining rangers moved to end the Sith. Defending against them all, Videion reached out with the Force and had he pilot of one ship destroy the other two, slamming them into the hangar bay and killing more rangers. The two cornered Sith then sprang out, Videion savagely cutting down the supporting rangers while Spectyr confronted the combined force of Oltel, Cuul and Pypper. Oltel and Pypper tried to talk Spectyr down, even as he beheaded Cuul. Shocked by how far he could have fallen, Oltel then sprang at him, determined to end him while telling Pypper to flee and alert others to the survival of the Sith. He barely got to the doors when Videion wrenched him back with the Force and killed him, before turning to watch his master. His master, revitalised by all the death, hammered away against Oltel’s defences, beating her back and forcing her into the blazing wreckage. The remaining fighter was hovering, trying to fire, but Spectyr then deftly disarmed Oltel and her saber span through the air and cut into the last fighter cockpit, destroying the ship and slamming it to the ground as well. Standing in front of Oltel, she demanded to know why he would join the Sith. Savagely blaming her, she inclined her head and was truly remorseful that her rash action had caused so much damage. Taken aback as he prepared to strike her down, Spectyr briefly hesitated, until a red blade punched through his chest. The attack made him finish the swing in shock, cleaving the Baragwin in two with a scream, and Spectyr turned in disbelief as a grinning Videion removed his saber from his chest, then swung it and cut off his master’s head.

****

** Darth Videion **

Species: Human male

Birth name: Kyunai Jarboll  
Reign: 281 BBY-263 BBY, 263 BBY-253 BBY  
Info: Raised on the streets of Nar Shaddaa, he was raised by a kindly thief who took the boy and several others under his wing, teaching them what to do in order to survive on the Hutt moon. Returning home one day to find the thief had been killed by a bloodthirsty gang raid under the banner of the Underworld Overlords, and that everyone he had ever known had been slaughtered, the boy struck out on his own, while seeking justice for what had happened to his pseudo family. While struggling to survive, he pickpocketed the entirety of the entourage of Baldesh the Hutt, who rumbled him as he made to escape. Amused by the boy’s enthusiasm and gall, Baldesh asked him why he would steal from a mighty Hutt, and the boy told him he wanted to get enough money to pay a bounty hunter to kill the entire Overlords gang. Nodding, Baldesh agreed to help, and sent his men to kill the entire gang. Returning victorious, they brought the leader of the gang, and the Hutt then asked the boy what they should do with him. The boy replied nothing and made to leave the room. The Hutt, enraged, prepared to kill the boy when he knocked over one of the sconces of flame that lit the Hutt’s hideout, and the gang leader screamed as the boy hungrily watched him burn, having knocked it right on the gang boss. Deeply amused and impressed, Baldesh took him in and he steadily sabotaged, manipulated or killed anyone who got in his way, eventually becoming Baldesh’s most trusted advisor and his majordomo.

Keeping his position throughout the years, as he grew older he began to resent the Hutt, as Baldesh, enamoured by a up and coming Twi’lek who had joined his organisation, was trying to supplant him, and realising that Baldesh was a buffoon who was simply using him to keep himself in power and making money. When the Houk settled Sriluur, he advised against getting involved only to be ignored on the recommendation of the Twi’lek who was seeking to supplant him. Enraged and resenting the Hutt, he was approached by a shadowy Defel who promised that others could see his true potential. Alarmed, the boy fled from the Defel, but as he sat in his tent, he realised that the time had come to abandon the Hutt. Following his instincts, he sought out the Defel, and when the Defel revealed himself to be Darth Spectyr, he joined him and had a drone obliterate the camp and all within it, as the boy fled with his new master and became Darth Videion.

Trained by his master to have a zealot like loyalty to the Sith, and branding both Axiom and Doctryn as heretics, Spectyr took the boy under his wing, and he quickly become a proficient Sith, his clarity of vision and his unwavering ambition being a natural boon to his role as a Sith, and was a boon in his learning of Shien. Assisting his master with his plans to create the Trade Defence Force to further strengthen the Trade Federation and assisting in further weakening the judicials, he remained loyally with his master for years until the incident on Toprawa. Sabotaging a summit between the Jedi, the judicials and the Antarian Rangers, Videion began to realise that his time had come. As events devolved on the surface as the Jedi who had forced Spectyr on the run in the first place was present, her compassion prevented the Sith from easily sabotaging the summit, and the Jedi, judicials and rangers all converged upon the two Sith. A gruelling fight followed, but despite the odds against them, the two Sith took the upper hand, and Spectyr duelled the Jedi who had ruined his life. Disarming the Jedi, Spectyr moved to kill Oltel Martoom, only for Videion to seize his moment and murder his master as he murdered the Jedi, assuming mastery of the Sith.

Now alone, Videion fled the town on Toprawa in the chaos, disappearing before he could be traced by the Jedi, rangers or Toprawans. Escaping the planet, Videion was now the sole Sith and was eager to further his plans as the master, and as a result relocated to Anaxes. With he and his master having succeeded on Toprawa, the Republic military was once again weakened by their actions. Seeking to withdraw from that aspect of the plan, Videion continued to help keep the warlord Kalut in power, and kept the Jedi and the Republic off balance by continuing to make the outer reaches more and more lawless, making it harder for the Jedi and judicial forces, who were already stretched thin, and widening the divide between the core and the outer rim.

However, Videion’s greatest contribution to the Grand Plan was the complete alienation of relations between the Republic and the Hutts. Up until now, the Republic and the Hutts had endured a cautious but respectful relationship, however, with his knowledge of the Hutts, Videion strived to change that, in order to deprive the Republic of a potential ally in such a way that they would be isolated when the time eventually came for the Grand Plan to succeed. What became known as the Sluggish Divorce led to a great increase in animosity between the two factions, and made them business partners only, forcing the Republic to bargain with the Hutts the same way they did with everyone else.

Following the debacle that ensued on Toprawa, Supreme Chancellor Thotath was to face re-election, however with a lack of any credible alternative candidates, and his popular support from the public, it resulted in the Pacitthip getting another term. Videion however was content to allow this to happen as it meant he could continue surrounding the chancellor with inefficient bureaucrats which would make it easier to achieve his aims. However, despite his clear analytical stills and discerning ambition, Videion was caught completely off-guard only a few months into the chancellors new term. Desperate to shore up support, Thotath began to court the Hutts, seeking to open greater relations with them. Initially hesitant, believing it to be little more than a ploy to interfere in their business, and in their control over the slave trade, the Hutts were keen to keep the Chancellor at arm’s length. However, in his first State of the Republic address, Thotath insisted that he was seeking better relations with the Hutts, in an attempt to expand the ability to more effectively police the galaxy, and curious, an idealistic member of the Hutt Grand Council, a younger Hutt named Lelda, agreed to meet with the Chancellor in order to discuss his plan, which he was keeping very close to his chest.

Videion was initially unconcerned, believing the Hutts would hear him out and then send him packing, and only watched proceedings with half an eye. However in a meeting on the Wheel, Lelda met with Thotath and the two of them were locked away in session for hours. To his alarm however, at the conclusion of the meeting, in a joint press conference, both the Chancellor and Lelda announced a new era of intergalactic cooperation, that would see the Hutts and the Republic becoming much closer allies, and would see the Hutts becoming a stable and powerful political force, which would undermine the plans of the Sith, so in alarm, Videion turned his attentions to what would become known as the Wooing of the Cartel.

Thotath’s plan was a simple one: in exchange for reductions in their less than legal activities, their control of spice and smuggling, and of course their controlling interest in slavery, the Republic would recognise Hutt space as its own individual power, similar to the Corporate Sector and the Hapes Consortium, greatly improving and stabilising the Hutt economy, allowing them to field their own military and have their own political structure, allowing it to exist as an independent satellite state who the Republic could ally with, giving the Republic a powerful ally to turn to who would have legitimacy as another galactic power instead of as a bunch of gangsters. To Videion’s great surprise, Lelda was quite willing to go along with this, and slightly concerned as to what this could mean for the overall Grand Plan, he sought to end the Wooing and ensure that the two factions remained as they always had, or better yet, had a worse relationship than they did at present.

Public outcry at first was high, both in the Republic and in Hutt Space, due on the Republic’s side to the Hutt’s illegal activities and reputation as dangerous and violent criminals, and on the Hutt’s side due to the Hutt’s fear that the Republic planned to undermine their control of the slaves and turn them into nothing more than a Republic outpost. However, when Lelda convinced her peers to invite Thotath to Hutt Space on a state visit, more and more people began to come around to this new plan, to the alarm of Videion. The Hutt Council met with both Lelda and Thothath, seeking to expand their operations, and Videion used a former friend of his who was a retained for the council to discover that Thotath was quite willing to accept only a partial reduction in the Hutt’s illegal actions, and provided they kept the rest quiet, it would still be a beneficial alliance for all concerned. Consumed with greed, and with Thotath’s assurances that the Hutts would be safe from any Republic and Jedi reprisals to their existing practices, the two factions began to negotiate in earnest and Videion realised that unless this was stopped, a more powerful Hutt Cartel, allied with the Republic, could pose serious threats to the plans of the Sith further down the line and began to plot to bring an end to the negotiation and drive the two factions further apart.

Using his agents to gather the names and information on the key players in the debate, he put his clarity of vision and clear analytical skills to the test, and began to scout out the various Hutts who would need to be dealt with, along with the powerful members of the Republic all of whom would need to be dealt with in order to prevent Thotath’s plan from going ahead. With time of the essence, as public opinion was quickly turning in favour of this new partnership, Videion knew he had little time in which to act in order to prevent this from coming about he set course for Nal Hutta, pondering how best to work this to his advantage, and as such he entered deep meditation while en route in order to identify the best path to take.

Realising that an outright assault would not serve, Videion quickly realised that while he could kill one or maybe two provided it looked like an accident, he was going to have to take a more subtle approach. Knowing how the Hutts operated, he realised that Lelda was the main problem on their side but couldn’t move against her yet. With the Hutt Grand Council consisting of five different Hutts, and with one passionate advocate for closer Republic relations and two who were coming around, they would need to be dealt with. On the Republic side the Chancellor, Minister for Trade and Minister for State were all great advocates, however the Chair of the Senate and the Vice Chancellor were staunchly opposed, believing it would greatly corrupt the Republic and trap them in the Hutt’s shady dealings should the plan go ahead, and with this knowledge in hand Videion designed his plan to eliminate any chance of the Wooing resulting how the Chancellor and Lelda wanted it.

The main advocates untouchable, Videion instead turned his attention to one of the reluctant Hutts, a suspicious creature by the name of Navoo. Consumed with avarice, he hated the plan, as, due to him having a controlling interest in the Hutt slave trade, there was no way that his coffers wouldn’t be impacted if this went ahead, and he was as such, the weak link. Contacting him in secret, he revealed himself to have been the former servant of the Hutt Baldesh, and Navoo was intrigued to learn how he came to still live when his master did not. Informing Navoo that his master had failed to heed his warning and that his enemies had then conspired to kill him, Navoo was given a sense of respect for this shadowy figure, who urge him that this plan could not go ahead, something the Hutt was only too happy to agree with. With him beginning to cause ructions within the Hutt council and delaying the process with second guessing and pointing out flaws in the plan, which started to seed distrust from the public, Videion reported the process with the Aleena Chair of the Senate, and with Navoo’s help, exposed some of the Hutt’s shadiest dealings and leaked them to the people of the Republic, which started a host of protests across the galaxy as people learned exactly how devious and dangerous the Hutts were, however despite this slowing down the process it seemed that the Wooing would still go ahead. Seeing that more drastic measures would be needed, Videion instigated the death of the Minister for State, using the Force to provoke a heart attack which killed him. However, the Chancellor made sure that his replacement was also on board with his plan for closer relations with the Hutts, and the process continued virtually uninterrupted, despite the protests, and both the Senate Chair and Navoo’s efforts to derail the process.

Momentum for the new alliance was increasing, and Thotath, Lelda and their allies were encouraging more and more open communication between the two factions, and despite Videion’s best efforts, he was unable to derail the process through conventional means. He had been exploiting both Hutt and Republic officials to try and derail the process only to no avail, so began to formulate a plan that would undo the entire negotiation. In the third of a series of broadcast debates, Lelda and Thotath answered many questions, answering Republic fears and those of the inhabitants of Hutt Space, Videion infiltrated the debate and posed a question, as to why the Republic was so determined to make such good friends with the Hutts suddenly. Both advocates fobbed him off, and his interest piqued, Videion realised that whatever the true reason for this sudden new friendship was, that was how he could undo the entire process. Infiltrating Thotath’s quarters while the Hutts hosted a concert in his honour, Videion accessed his personal records, and realised that there was a lot of correspondence with Black Sun. Intrigued, Videion discovered that Black Sun had seized control of the Chancellor’s estate, and was blackmailing him into his new alliance with the Hutts. Deciding to wait for the truth, Videion waited for the chancellor to return and once he had dismissed his security staff the Sith Lord emerged from the shadows and confronted the Chancellor.

Startled but scared, the Chancellor revealed the truth: Black Sun was behind his reelection, ensuring that there was no decent viable alternative to him resulting in him winning. Having had no knowledge of this beforehand, he was quite grateful until Pocorine revealed herself to be the Underlord of Black Sun, and that she demanded his cooperation, and it was then that she revealed that Black Sun had seized control of his estate on his homeworld and was holding his family hostage. With the threat of Black Sun murdering his entire family, Thotath was forced to do the bidding of the criminal syndicate, who were the real force behind this new proposed close relationship between the Republic and the Hutts. If the Hutts became their own true independent recognised nation, the Republic’s influence over Black Sun and it’s illegal activities would be forced to diminish, and the Jedi would also no longer be as able to directly intercede, not without severely damaging relations with the Hutts. Pocorine’s plan was to move Black Sun’s main operations to Hutt Space, using it’s status as its own independent power to keep the Republic at bay, and due to the nature of the Hutts and their shady dealings, the Hutts could be relied upon to act as security and protection for Black Sun’s interests, and Black Sun could even garner their own security forces and would find recruitment and their activities much easier to carry out with the Hutt’s on side. Intrigued, impressed and also slightly alarmed that Videion had had no knowledge of this plot, despite having agents in Black Sun, Videion assured a terrified Chancellor that he would see to it that the entire situation was resolved satisfactorily, and told him to be ready.

Contacting his agents within Black Sun, after killing several for their failure to inform him of what was transpiring in regards to their underlord’s plans, he eventually was put into contact with one of the Vigos, who informed him that this was the first time that the Vigos had been allowed communication with anyone offplanet since they had kidnapped Thotath’s family. Vigo Laleesa, a Pa’lowick woman, along with the rest of the Vigos had all had severe reservations about the plan, and owing her success to the actions of the Sith networks she had tried to alert Videion but had had no success due to their leader’s communications block. She revealed, as Videion already suspected, that Pocorine was actually on Nal Hutta and had infiltrated one of the security detachment’s of one of the Hutt Council, in order to make sure Thotath did as he was instructed. Having learned that Lelda was not involved, and was merely an idealistic and charismatic young Hutt who wanted to improve the lives of her people and those under them, Videion realised that now that Thotath had told others, events were on the move, and he saw just how to use it to his advantage to bring a complete end to the proceedings.

Before the final press session, Videion anonymously warned both parties that there was a threat at foot in the hall, resulting in both factions security being put on high alert. Infiltrating the building, he then used the Force to ensure that the doors remained sealed, and that only Thotath, Lelda and Navoo’s men were present in the atrium, having ensured that all the other main reps would be delayed. Thotath, encouraged by Videion, entered the atrium with his large security force and prepared to arrest Pocorine, but a horrified Lelda was shocked to see him enter with so many troops, and he then told her in confidence what was truly going on. Agreeing with him, the two (both of whom genuinely wanted a closer relationship between the two factions, though not for the same reasons as Black Sun) prepared their men as a show of Republic/Hutt cooperation and the two security forces confronted Navoo’s team. The other Hutt was furious, however, Pocorine then used her war axe to kill the Hutt as he protested, and asked if they truly thought she was unprepared for any form of treachery. To the shock of everyone, including to Videion, most of Thotath’s guards who had been replaced at some point by Black Sun, then turned on Lelda and her men, slaughtering the idealistic and popular young Hutt along with her entire retinue as the doors opened and the other Hutts saw the so called Republic forces slaughtering those of the Hutts, including a popular local hero. In the chaos, Pocorine slipped away, prompting Videion to follow her and he confronted the Black Sun Underlord. She blamed him for ruining her plan, which he gave her credit for creating, and acknowledged her as a truly devious and cunning opponent, and asked about her origins. She responded with a question of her own, claiming he was not a Jedi and that she kept tabs on all of the most powerful, well known and influential Jedi, which he respected as a wise decision. Promising that the two of them would meet again, Pocorine departed, and intrigued by her skill, intellect and origins, Videion allowed her to escape, and left the planet himself to savour the downfall of the Wooing of the Cartel.

The result could not have been worse for the Republic. Lelda, a popular, young Hutt who was something of a folk hero to both the Hutts and their vassal species, was dead, along with her entire entourage, shattering any hope of closer relations as the entire populace was out for blood. Navoo was also dead, and the remaining leadership of the Republic, despite claiming (correctly) that the so called security team wasn’t theirs, was being held hostage, leading to a leaderless senate and the Jedi Council having to intervene to try and get the hostages returned. The Hutts were furious, blaming the Republic for the death and the chaos, as Videion had intended. Pocorine made good on her word and had the Chancellor’s mutilated family delivered to him on Nal Hutta, and in his despair he took his own life, which made him look even more incriminated than he already had. Postmortem analysis of his effects revealed that Black Sun had helped taint the election, exposing corruption in the highest levels of government, and that he was being held hostage and that as a result, he had used the Hutts as pawns in his own game, and had manipulated a popular, young and trusting Hutt into trying to bring the two factions closer together. The Hutts were apoplectic with rage, claiming that the Republic and its Chancellor had manipulated them, used them as pawns, had made them unwitting pawns of Black Sun and had caused the deaths of Hutts and their vassal species alike, while misleading them and lying to them all along, exploiting them for personal gain. Despite the losses the Republic had suffered, and the loss of their Chancellor, despite the Vice Chancellor’s efforts to try and smooth things over, the Hutt Council met and banished the entire delegation from the planet, and with that the Hutts and the Republic split irrevocably, and led to an increase in military spending for the Hutts, beginning a silent but potentially deadly Cold War. The backfiring of the entire affair forced the remaining Republic representatives out of office, and the prominent Anaxian Senator who had taken the lead in the negotiations to get the hostages released was suddenly elevated to Chancellor, a role he was totally unprepared for, leading to more chaos and inefficiency at the top of the Republic, and the other independent states showed solidarity with the Hutts, isolating the Republic and making them more and more hated in the outer rim, as to many in the outer rim they had shown their true colours as nothing more than greedy, power hungry government officials, determined to control everything regardless of the wants of everyone else concerned. Prompted by the developing frosty relations on the borders and having an overwhelmed Anaxian senator now as Chancellor, the judicial forces were slightly expanded, and a greater focus was made on finishing the _Procurator_ class battlecruiser despite it still struggling in developmental hell, the Sluggish Divorce was a total disaster for the Republic, and a late quarter triumph for the Sith.

With the Republic in chaos, Videion turned his attention to Black Sun. While he had the greatest respect for what Pocorine had done with the entirety of the Sluggish Divorce, the fact that she had moved so secretly so that his networks had had no idea, and that she had stolen an election and still not tripped any alarms was of great concern to him. In addition, his networks had alerted to him that it seemed as if she too was looking for him, which could mean that she was onto what he was. Departing Anaxes once again, Videion headed to meet with the Vigo he controlled, Laleesa, at her sanctum on Makem Te. As the two made contact, she was assassinated by one of her own security droids, who stunned Videion before he could react, and when he awoke he was Pocorine’s prisoner at her headquarters on Eos.

Pocorine confronted him, and admitted to being impressed at his actions on Nal Hutta, offering him a position within Black Sun, even offering him the now vacant post of Vigo. Videion was amused, and refused, though warned her to let him go, but said that if she did the two of them could become a force to be reckoned with, and offered her a chance to work with him. Refusing his offer, Pocorine left him to slide into the lava as she collapsed the platform he was standing on. Using the Force to rip his manacles off he leapt out the trap, summoned his lightsaber and escaped the prison, slaughtering his way through dozens of Black Sun guards and entering the main facility. As the various Vigos tried to escape, Videion trapped them in the room, forcing Pocorine to draw her axe and try to confront the Sith Lord. Duelling her, he mutilated her before casting her out of the window, believing her to be dead, and as a result the Vigos swore loyalty to him. On his orders, Laleesa’s sister, Petoola, took over Black Sun, and she ruthlessly slaughtered the remnants of Pocorine’s loyal support, and as a result, Videion took control of Black Sun. Immediately ordering them to disband all of their former underlord’s plans lest they pose a threat to his own machinations, he returned to Anaxes, with Black Sun now secure and going back to being less ambitious, there was no need for such rigid control anymore.

Over the next several years, Videion continued to orchestrate events behind the scenes, doing everything he could do humiliate the Republic, cast light on how corrupt and inefficient it had become, creating calls for more militant problems, and causing problems for the Republic overall, using Black Sun to spread chaos across the Republic, while using them to make the outer rim more lawless and unprotected, while using Hutt Space as a useful redoubt. While doing so, Videion began his search for an apprentice, and began to suspect that the time of the Sith’s victory was beginning to come into sight. Over the last eight hundred years, various Sith Lords had all contributed towards the Grand Plan, and now all the various pieces were beginning to come together. Realising that his choice of apprentice was hence even more important than that of any other Sith, as he perceived that this would be one of the last few Sith before their plan was ready to move into action, he scoured the galaxy looking for an appropriate apprentice, while also trying to find out where exactly Pocorine had come from, as this continued to intrigue him. Using Black Sun, the Hutts, and various other criminals to make the outer reaches forever more lawless, increasing the power of the guilds and the Republic, Videion contributed to the Grand Plan while continuing with the low level stuff that had been done by many before, the ramifications of the Sluggish Divorce still echoing across the Republic. However, to his shock, several Sith networks began to collapse, as members were steadily picked off one by one. Alarmed as to why this was happening, Videion arrived on Botajef in order to investigate.

Once on Botajef, Videion began his investigations, eventually following their source back to a member of his networks, who revealed that they had all been assassinated piecemeal. Intrigued as to what could have caused this, Videion discovered that someone had managed to crack the network key that was responsible for hiding the various parts of his network, and that with the algorithm now cracked his entire networks in the local vicinity were now in danger. Tracking down the hacker, Videion discovered that it was a Duros who had cracked the algorithm and was allowing for the murder of several members of his network, and that he was now searching for more similar networks, which could potentially endanger the entirety of the Sith imperative, cutting them off from their flows of information. Confronting him, Videion discovered the Duros was powerful in the Force, and had used the Force to help him identify what he was looking for. Videion had initially planned to kill him, however he was intrigued despite himself, and simply subdued the Duros and then interrogated him. The Duros revealed that he had been headhunted by a shadowy individual of some description, who had heard of his reputation as a hacker, and that they were seeking information on various shadow networks. Alarmed by what the Duros was saying, Videion looked over the Duros work, and was alarmed to realise that he was close to breaking even more Sith network algorithms, which could not only reveal the networks themselves, but could also expose the various minions that Videion had scattered throughout the galaxy, and also reveal many of his plans. Videion then informed him that he was the true owner of those networks, and that now that the young Duros man knew of them, he could not keep him alive. The Duros begged for his life, and persuaded Videion that he might be able to backtrack his mysterious employer back through the files he had, which Videion consented to. The Duros’ employer was the true threat, and could very well expose the Sith to the Jedi, at the worst, but if not, if Videion was correct, the Sith were accelerating toward their triumph, and as such could not afford any distractions, least of all anything that could inflict the same damage to the information, monetary, political and supply networks that Darth Gravid had three hundred years before. Struck by a suspicion, Videion left Botajef and took the Duros with him, beginning to suspect he knew who was behind this.

Hacking his way back through the various channels that his mysterious employer had contacted him through, he identified that the original sender had come from an outpost on Pzob, in a building belonging to GamorrCare. Setting course for the planet, Videion and the Duos travelled to the facility to discover it was abandoned. Hacking in once again, the Duros discovered that his mysterious employer had been here, and had also used a variation of the algorithm of the one he had used to expose the Sith networks to uncover a multitude of others. Quickly realising who was to blame for this, he contacted Patoola, and was about to warn her that the Vigos were in danger as her headquarters were obliterated in a massive explosion. The Duros was horrified that his actions had led to so many deaths, as reports were coming in from Videion’s intact networks that Black Sun’s headquarters had been destroyed, destroying the head of the organisation and with many of their networks and supply lines compromised, the entire organisation was in uproar. Videion was furious, and then revealed to the hacker who he really was: the Dark Lord of the Sith, and despite what he had previously thought, it was the previous head of Black Sun, Pocorine, who was behind these attacks upon the Sith. Threatening the Duros with the Force, he warned him that he had better identify where she had gone so he could finally deal with her.

Over the next several weeks, the Duros was stimulated by his fear to work on finding her. Growing increasingly desperate, Videion, whose networks were still being attacked, who’s agents in Hutt Space had been sold out to the Hutts themselves, and with Black Sun no longer an option, he was growing increasingly frustrated with the failures of his hacker. Contemplating killing him, however, he suddenly received a Force vision, of both he and the Duros working together, and he realised that this Duros was to be his apprentice. Confronting the hacker once again, he gave him his first lesson, teaching him meditation, and by so doing the Duros identified Fornax as the location where Pocorine now was. Furious, Videion headed with the Duros to confront her.

On Fornax, Videion and his prospective apprentice identified that Pocorine was the managing director of the local branch of GeneTech Corporation on the orbiting space station. Realising that her quarry was now on planet, Pocorine marshalled the entirety of the guards and militia against him and sent them against the Sith Lord. Videion, enraged, drew on the dark side to slaughter his way through the station, with the shocked Duros following behind. Having slaughtered his way through so many sentients, Vidieon was then shocked to be beset by mysterious, creepy assassins who skirted the Force. Pocorine greeted him, her face and chest having been mutilated by their last confrontation, and she engaged him in battle while the strange assassins tried to kill him from the shadows. Pocorine revealed that since her survival, she had found a new deadly organisation and had dedicated herself to revenge on both him and on Black Sun, and now that Black Sun was in chaos, she only had him left to deal with, and battled him in full battle dress, wearing a M’uhk’gfa and wielding an Arg’garok. Shocked by the power of the Gamorrean, he demanded to know how she had come into being, as she was much more dangerous than the average Gamorrean, much smarter and much more mentally advanced. Their duel continued, with Pocorine taunting him, and revealing that she had only dismantled his operations to draw him out, and now that he was, she and the new organisation that she had now become leader of, the Bando Gora, would dedicate themselves to destroying everything that he had worked for. She had also gotten stronger since their last encounter, and despite his mastery of Shien, this untrained sow was keeping him at bay, aided and abetted by these dangerous assassins. Pocorine managed to disarm him, and made to go in for the kill and assume her revenge, however, the hacker, realising that she would kill him for leading Videion to her, then actively used the Force for the first time, and blasted her out of the spacestation window, sucking her assassins with her. Weakened, the hacker got an exhausted Videion to safety. On their ship, Videion saluted him for his assistance, and promised that they had not seen the last of Pocorine. Telling him that he was meant for more than just a holonet hacker, Videion then offered him the chance to join him, and with that, the hacker became Darth Prophraoh.

With Prophraoh now under his careful instruction, Videion taught him the ways of the Force, honing his intellect and foresight, making him a powerful seer, and training him to use the Force and wield the lightsaber, focusing on Niman. Quickly advancing, his first task was to discover more of the Bando Gora, and above all, find out more about Pocorine and to find where she had disappeared away to. Discovering, as he had suspected due to her presence and role on Fornax, that she was part of Genetech Corporation. Using his recuperating information networks and both his and his apprentice’s insights, Videion discovered that there was a secret subcompany of Genetech called AltaGene. Setting course for the Xa Fel system, the two Sith intended to unravel the mystery and track down Pocorine before she posed more of a threat to their designs. At the company’s headquarters, the two Sith discovered that AltaGene was a private subsidiary, supported by the Arkanians in order to genetically modify some of the more unlovely and less intellectually developed species in order to make them more useful to galactic society. The entire project was cancelled, however the primary doctor in charge had continued it in secret, and while every other one of his test subjects had died, such as the Vulptereens and other Gamorreans under his charge, Pocorine herself had excelled, and was easily the smartest and most cunning member of the test subjects. Having killed the doctor for what he had done to her, she had fled, and had then vanished from sight, and Videion theorised that that was when she had joined Black Sun. Now armed with the information they sought, they turned their attention to the Bando Gora.

While the various Sith plots continued, they were hindered across the galaxy by the actions of the Bando Gora. Realising that if she was not stopped, the two Sith set out to bring an end to her before her actions either derailed their plans any further or worse drew the attention of the Jedi. The Bando Gora embarked upon a campaign of insurrection, chaos and sabotage, determined to crush the plans and resources of the Sith. Using their combined power, the two Sith eventually foresaw their next strike. Foiling a Bando Gora plot to stop Videion’s agents from inciting riots on Eriadu, they captured the leader of the strike team and tortured him as to Pocorine’s whereabouts, tracking her towards the planet Necropolis. The two Sith descended on the planet and feeding off the dark side pall of the planet, they made their way to Pocorine in the main crypt on the planet. Battling her once again, the two Sith slaughtered dozens of members of the Bando Gora on their way to her, and once more she engaged Videion, enraged that he still lived, and that he was the one constantly thwarting her. Equally enraged at her constant meddling, he battled the abomination and struck a mortal blow, casting her body into a chasm. With the battle finished, Videion remarked to Prophraoh that the Bando Gora, now free of her malevolent influence, could actually be a useful tool for the Sith in days to come. Numerous Bando Gora assassins then sprang out of nowhere and attacked the Sith, and before Videion could react, Pocorine’s war axe embedded itself in his back. Screaming with pain he turned to see the dying Gamorrean, and as his last act he blasted her dying body with Force lightning. Struggling through it however, it occurred to Videion that Prophraoh should have foreseen this. As this realisation dawned, his apprentice blasted him with a Force push, and with that, both Darth Videion and his nemesis were sent toppling into the chasm, where they were impaled on the rocks below, leaving Prophraoh as the master.

****

** Darth Prophraoh **

Species: Duros male

Birth name: Cetro Vookto  
Reign: 255 BBY-253 BBY, 253 BBY-188 BBY  
Info: A Duros who was born on a transport between Duros and Neimodia, his parents moved to Cato Neimodia for work. Raised among the Neimodians, Vookto never really fit in, and as he grew up, he begged his parents, both of whom worked in Neimodian hatcheries, to work to try and move offworld. His father, a proud man, refused and told his son that he had no respect for his parents, effectively disowning him and casting him from the family. Now alone, despite his mother’s pleas, he departed the planet and headed to Botajef, where he quickly found work as a data analyst. Quickly becoming bored, but too proud to admit that he had made a mistake, he began to silently hack his employers, and it was then that he began to follow the prompts of his dreams. Having been plagued with dreams for his entire life (to the alarm of his parents who feared there was something wrong with him), rather than suppress them as he had been taught, he now began to embrace them, and began to hear the will of the Force.

Continuing with his day job, he began to call himself the Shadowstorm in his work as a hacker, and began to take on freelance work, quickly earning riches, as he unknowingly did work for the Hutts, Black Sun, and even at different points worked for the networks of the Sith. Having brought down companies both corrupt and innocent alike, having caused problems and solved them for the Republic, he had attracted the interest of many, including the former displaced head of Black Sun, the Gamorrean sow Pocorine, who was now in charge of the shadowy organisation the Bando Gora. Intrigued by the skills of this hacker, and seeking revenge for her humiliation, her defeat and her injuries all of which were inflicted by Darth Videion, Pocorine contacted Shadowstorm and hired him to break the Sith networks for an exuberant fee, which the Duros agreed to without hesitation. That night however, he was given a vision of the future by the Force, warning that his entire future was dependent on this moment. Rocked to his core, he considered refusing the job offer, however he was disturbed from his deliberations by the arrival of his mother and father. His father dismissed his accomplishments, while his mother tried to keep the peace. Vookto then revealed exactly how much he had done, and demanded to know why when they had banished him he was suddenly welcomed back. His mother then admitted that his father was dying, and that he wanted his son to take over the small business that he had built when he died. Not swayed, his father decried him for his lack of loyalty, and Vookto then informed him that he had kept an eye on them over the years, had even sent money to them, and his mother was shocked, as he revealed that he had hacked in to discover severe debts that his father hadn’t told his mother about and had done nothing about. Furious that he had revealed his secret, his father left, his mother reluctantly following, and Vookto went ahead with the job.

Expertly hacking into the networks that his mysterious employer asked him to look into, he had unknowingly identified both Sith and Black Sun data webs, and relayed his information back to his employer, who then used the information to begin dismantling entire systems. Continuing with his work, he was then confronted by a human male, who was the owner of the very networks he was unravelling. Terrified for his life, the hacker was pressganged into the man’s service, travelling with him to Pzob as they searched for the employer, the Duros terrified the man would kill him at any moment. After his mysterious employer murdered the various Vigos of Black Sun, the man, Darth Videion, realised who was behind this and warned the Duros that he better find Pocorine. Stimulated by fear and having no luck finding her, Videion, under direction from the dark side, then helped the young Duros meditate, allowing them to locate Pocorine on Fornax, leading to a confrontation there. Shaken by the improving accuracy of his visions, and envious of the power wielded by Videion, when the Sith Lord was in danger, Vookto tapped into the Force and blasted Pocorine from the space station, defeating her. Impressed, Videion then offered Vookto the position of his apprentice, and he accepted, vowing that no one would ever dismiss him like his father had again, and with that became Darth Prophraoh.

Prophraoh’s apprenticeship was very short by most Sith standards. However, in that time, his master taught him the intricacies of the Grand Plan, along with absolute loyalty to the Sith and to the dark side. Honing his visions, Prophraoh became an incredibly accurate seer, and melded his visions with his chosen lightsaber form of Makashi, becoming an incredibly skilled combatant and a wielder of many difficult and arcane Force powers. However, while his master taught him everything there was to know of the plan, they were hindered by the attacks of the Bando Gora upon Sith holdings as Pocorine mobilised her forces against them, and much of his apprenticeship was also spent hunting down the Gamorrean leader of the Bando Gora, trying to finally identify where she was so that his master could deal with her permanently. While on their way to the graveyard planet of Necropolis, Prophraoh received a vision of his master being killed by Pocorine, who he had thought dead. Wracked with indecision for the duration of the flight, believing he was far too inexperienced to allow this to happen, they battled Pocorine and her Bando Gora minions on the planet, and the event unfolded as expected. However, when Pocorine had a last resurgence and struck down his master, Prophraoh quickly analysed all possible futures, and found that if his master died, he would languish for decades yet under his master. As his master struggled with his nemesis, Prophraoh then attacked, using a Force push to send both his master and his nemesis to their final demises on the jagged rocks of the graveyard planet. With that, he became the sole Sith Lord, and the remaining Bando Gora members fled, and like his master, Prophraoh realised that they could indeed be used to the benefit of the Sith.

Contacting the new leader of the Bando Gora, Prophraoh enlisted their help as, with the help of his visions, he began to divine exactly what was needed to create the final nails in the coffin of the Republic and the Jedi. As his master had told him, Prophraoh agreed: they would be the final Sith who were merely preparing for the revenge of the Sith, from now on, he and every successor would be one closer to bringing an end to their enemies. Acting through the Bando Gora, the Hutts, and various other minions, Prophraoh stimulated tensions between the core and the outer rim, created more and more dangerous foes for the Republic and Jedi to struggle to defeat, increased public satisfaction with the government, and heightened corruption and inefficiency throughout the senate, while further tying the Jedi’s hands and encouraging their isolationist approach to galactic life.

Honing his skills in the dark side, Prophraoh relied on ancient Sith texts, and the holocrons of his predecessors to help him grow in strength and wisdom through the Force. In particular, due to their similar abilities, he learned much from the teachings and the holocron of Darth Cognus, all the while honing his skill in the Force and his skill with a lightsaber. In keeping with the traditions of his predecessors, Prophraoh travelled to Vendaxa, spending a year in communion with the dark side there, honing his craft, his skills and his abilities, slaughtering the savage beasts that roamed there. Emerging from his tenure on the planet, Prophraoh returned to the galaxy at large, and using his technological skills, and the vast funds the Sith had accumulated and became the editor of an up and coming news agency, using his visions to help in this regard, and became the managing editor of Intergalactic Galaxy News, which was quickly becoming a developing media outlet, which he used to develop another vital resource for the Sith, getting interviews and news before it reached even his other networks, and in his public guise of Cetro Vootko, he was known as a wily, inquisitive, mild mannered man, who earned the respect and loyalty of his subordinates, and his peaceful, approachable demeanour made him a good friend of many politicians, officials and even Jedi, and Prophraoh intended to use all of this to his, and hence to the Sith’s, advantage.

Setting himself up and basing his media company’s headquarters on Brentaal, Prophraoh had begun to attract the attention of many throughout the galaxy, including a Muun by the name of Caar Damask, who invited him to the Gathering, a summit meeting of various powerful and wealthy individuals throughout the galaxy, hosted on the moon of Sojourn. Upon his arrival on Sojourn, where many business magnates, media barons and a few senators and others were all meeting, Prophraoh received another vision: these Gatherings would hold the future of the Sith, and from then on Prophraoh made sure never to miss one as IgGN grew in power and influence, as he could tell that each and every meeting could hold further plans and keys to the future of the Grand Plan.

Having spent much of his first years in power honing his skills and powers, along with building up and developing IgGN, Prophraoh took a vastly different approach to the Grand Plan that many of his predecessors had not. Realising, as many other Sith had, that the future of the galaxy was to be decided in the outer rim, through various back channels, through his media outlets, and through his rapidly increasing influence over senators and other prominent members of galactic society, Prophraoh undertook a different approach: he would be an explorer. Silently sponsoring explorations of the outer rim, his aim was to simple: the more people who wound up in the outer rim, the more people there would be to resent the core, and hence the more damage the inevitable war between the rims and the core would cause when the time came. To this end, he used his influence with the Bando Gora to cause problems on the planet of Salliche, using them to corrupt and endanger the planet. Travelling there with several of his reporters to report on the story, Prophraoh’s presence there was twofold: one to show the inefficiency of the Republic to deal with the attacks of the Bando Gora on the planet, and secondly to encourage the disenchanted natives on the planet to relocate elsewhere. However upon arrival there, the Bando Gora betrayed Prophraoh, and attempted to seize control of the government of the planet in order to use it for their own ends. Having anticipated an eventual betrayal due to his visions, he quickly adapted his plans. Hunting down the Bando Gora himself, he slaughtered the entire cell on the planet, and killed their new leader. Dissolving the partnership and authorising his various minions to hunt the Bando Gora until they learned their place, the entire planet awoke in uproar to find that some corrupt member of the government had authorised the murder instead of the arrest of the criminals. Pleased with the result despite the slight snag, the disenchanted idealists of Salliche, at the urging of idealistic legislator Adarian Tropis, left the planet to set up a colony on Varonat, and while the idealism quickly faded when the venture failed, it was the start of a great age of expansion and exploration, which suited the ends of the Sith, and even better, the Bando Gora, shocked by the brutality with which the Sith Lord had dispatched them for their betrayal, retreated to the shadows to think again.

Despite his focus on expanding the outer rim for later use, Prophraoh was not above manipulating the various tensions to further weaken the Republic, and by extension the Jedi. Having made it seem as if the corrupt government of Salliche had ended the threat posed by the Bando Gora on the planet, humiliating the Republic in the process, Prophraoh struck once again in a similar regard, and a Judicial mission to soothe tensions on Melida/Daan was sabotaged by his machinations, resulting in a generations long civil war, which in turn humiliated the Republic as they were unable to prevent it, and furthermore stimulated other brush wars to start springing up across the galaxy, which further spread out and weakened the Republic and the Jedi. Pleased with his work, Prophraoh also stimulated civil wars in the outer rim where possible, causing further resentment to the core, as they were happy enough to bankroll these conflicts to make money, yet did nothing to help fix them. Despite his many successes in this regard, and his exquisite foresight, he could still be foiled. While trying to provoke war between the Cathar and Thisspissians, their neighbours, the Miraluka of Alpherides, asked the new young king of Thustra, Alaric, to mediate, which he did, and with help of Grand Master Yoda, the plans of Prophraoh were foiled in that instance, to his slight irritation, that he could do nothing about the leader of the Jedi Order, especially at this time, though vowed that one day, a Sith Lord would see to the Grand Master, a vision which pleased him greatly

During the reign of Prophraoh, silently aided and abetted by the Dark Lord of the Sith, vast swathes of the outer rim were discovered, and many planets were settled throughout the rim. The exploration of the Gardaji Rift attracted Prophraoh’s attention, particularly one planet which seemed to glow with the Living Force. Trying to discern any possible futures of the planet, he found his vision blocked, and slightly alarmed by this he stayed well clear of the strange planet, though he did encourage, through various channels, different species to try and settle on the strange, living planet.

However, the greatest contribution to this new age of exploration, was not in fact in the outer rim, but in the expansion region. The Cularin system, the location of which had been lost following the New Sith Wars, was rediscovered, including the planets of Almas and Cularin themselves, both of which were very powerful in the Force. Intrigued by these planets, Prophraoh watched the systems with interest as the Republic scouted them out, following the initial exploration, which resulted in many people beginning to settle the system, which in turn suited the ends of the Sith. With the Cularin system rapidly becoming a new frontier, Prophraoh used IgGN as an investor company, to help construct the colony on Almas and on Cularin, seeking an outpost which he could use to help further his plans in the outer rim, and to keep an eye on the two Force sensitive planets and see what benefit they could be to the Sith. To his delight, within a few short months, due to the system’s relative isolation, the insystem asteroid belt became a haven for pirates, such as Riboga the Hutt, which continued to prey upon ships heading towards the developing colonies, making the Republic seem even weaker as they failed to protect even their newest colonies, which weren’t even in the outer rim.

To Prophraoh’s delight however, it was what was discovered on the planet of Almas which was of the greatest interest to him. A Sith fortress, dating back to the time of Darth Rivan, was located on the planet, a powerful nexus of dark side energy, and as such, while relocating to and setting up a public home in Forard, Almas’ capital, he also spent much time sneaking into the fortress, exploring it and tapping into its immense power, and it was there that he perceived the future of his apprentices, and was shocked to see two beings, one Twi’lek and one humanoid, battling before him within the academy, for the right to be his apprentice. Pleased with this vision and enjoying a comfortable life on Almas while continuing to encourage the pirates and chaos within the outer rim, Prophraoh turned his attentions to other matters, all of which he was intending to use to force matters further against the Republic.

After a visit to the fortress on Almas, which Prophraoh used to further identify things that could help the Sith through his visions, Prophraoh saw a chance to simultaneously humiliate the Republic and once more strengthen the guilds, and the Trade Federation in particular. A vicious contagion had broken out on the planet Bordal, and the inhabitants pleaded with the Republic to help them as millions were sick and would die without treatment. The Republic quickly developed a vaccine on Tauber, and hence planned to ship it to Kabal and then onto Bordal. However, seeking top further humiliate the Republic and strengthen the power of the guilds, Prophraoh leaked information to local Fujari pirates (Kalut, the Sith’s usual go to pirate, had proven himself inefficient and was more content to pillage worlds he already controlled), and as a result the pirates attacked the medical convoy, which led to the vaccine being ruined and in turn led to the deaths of millions of Bordali. All transpired as expected: with millions of Bordali dead, the Fujari unpunished, the Rseikharhl species began developing their own vaccine, and as a result the Republic and by extension the Jedi were humiliated, and after a highly publicised interview by Trade Defence Force captain Firmus Kett, many systems surrounding Bordal, led by the Rseikharahl species, began to appeal to the Trade Federation, among other groups, for protection from pirates rather than the Republic, setting the groundwork for the Federation eventually representing whole planets and sectors itself.

Continuing to use Almas as his base of operations, alternating his time between his penthouse in Forard, and between the Sith fortress, Prophraoh continued to stimulate problems for the Republic, sponsored exploration of the outer rim, orchestrated the developing power of the guilds, and continued to spread resentment, mistrust and dissent throughout the galaxy, he indulged himself sabotaging the newest attempt at settling Bestine IV, merely for his own amusement, and also precipitated a civil war in the Krozourbian system, a war that continued to draw on, and hence weakened the Republic for their failure to deal with the problem.

Perceiving events and then shaping them to the designs of the Sith, Prophraoh, who used the instructions of Darth Rivan to create a Sith ritual in order to help him predict the future even more accurately than before, began to receive visions while secluding himself in the Sith fortress, foreseeing a conflict between Jedi, and as a result, perceived two prospective apprentices battling before him, fighting for their right to represent the future of the Sith. Pleased with this visions, and perceiving that he would soon have an appropriate apprentice who would continue to lead the Sith closer to their monumental glory, following the eddies of the dark side while in deep meditation, he foresaw the destruction of the inhabited worlds of the Carosi system. Struck by the abruptness of such a different vision from those he usually received, he departed for the Carosi system with many of his reporters from IgGN, to cover the developing story.

As they neared Carosi, Prophraoh realised that the majority of the system’s planets were in danger, as the star at the centre of the solar system was expanding into a red giant, which would cripple all life on the innermost planets. Acting quickly, while he covered the story through his reporters and journalists, Prophraoh acted through his various networks and agents, sabotaging every effort by the Republic to mount any form of relief effort for the system. After arriving in the system, with an incredibly overwhelmed Refugee Relief Movement being the only responders on hand, and no sign of any help coming from the Republic or the guilds, Prophraoh had the ships of his reporters donated to help the cause, joining the large influx of local volunteers in helping the Carosites and other settlers off of Carosi IV to the furthermost planet of Carosi XII, which was out of range of the expanding star in the centre of the system.

By so doing, Prophraoh bumped into a Twi’lek captain, powerful in the Force, who was enraged that the Republic was doing nothing to help the Carosites who were about to lose their homes. Talking with him at length on their many trips back and forth to the Carosites new home, the Twi’lek captain became further enraged that despite the coverage of Prophraoh’s news company the Republic and others still seemed content to do nothing, (though in reality they were beset by many small crises, which were tying up their resources, as Prophraoh had orchestrated), Prophraoh began to goad the Twi’lek, whipping him into a frenzy, and at last confirmed what he had already believed: this Twi’lek was one of the prospective apprentices he had seen battling before him in his vision. As the star expanded and atomised all life on the inner planets of the system, including all of the Carosites that couldn’t be saved, Prophraoh asked him whether a government, such as the Republic, that fails in its basic duty to protect any and all of its citizens, should be allowed to endure, and the furious Twi’lek, stung by the injustice, and tempted by his rage, and wanting nothing more than an opportunity to lash out at the corrupt, inefficient system that had condemned many innocent people to death and what was mired in bureaucracy and corruption, revealed his past to Prophraoh: as a would be political agitator and freedom fighter, who had been expelled from university from his less than favourable anti-Republic views.

Delighted, and seeing him as the perfect candidate for his apprentice, Prophraoh revealed his identity as a Sith Lord to him, and promised him that together, the two of them could ensure the destruction of the Republic. Tempted by his rage and lust for vengeance, the Twi’lek accepted his offer, and knelt before Prophraoh’s feet, and willingly submitted himself to the teachings of the Sith, becoming Darth Aegir. As he rose, now as an apprentice of the Sith, and shook hands with his new master, the Force echoed like a dark pulsar, a stark contrast to the star of the Carosi system, and for the first time in over eight hundred years, the Jedi began to suspect something that terrified them: that the dark side was growing in strength once again. On the other hand though, the shifting in the Force, it meant to the Sith that the Force had finally tipped, and that the dark side was now in ascendancy, and that they had passed the point of no return: the Jedi couldn’t stop them now.

With the Republic having been heavily criticised for not assisting the Carosi system when they were in such danger, Prophraoh guided his new apprentice in his attempts to capitalise on that, widening the divide and drawing more people against the Republic. Beginning to teach Aegir the intricacies of the Grand Plan, Prophraoh sponsored his return to university, where he once more picked up the study of the biological sciences, while learning the ways of the Force form his master. Developing in his skills in the dark side, though not nearly as adept a seer as his master was, Aegir came on steadily, quickly using the Force to tap into his natural intelligence and allowing it to guide his hand. He grasped the use of new Force powers with little effort, and quickly began to master Shii-Cho as his lightsaber form. Splitting his time between his Sith and his actual studies, Prophraoh continued to use his media company and his influence to make important friends, allies and connections, to set up plans and orchestrate things to further weaken the Republic, the Jedi and to strengthen the power of the guilds, all the while provoking further tensions and resentment throughout the galaxy in order to undo the Republic.

One plan that did not work quite as expected was Prophraoh’s attempt to covertly establish influence, if not full control, over the up and coming Baobab Merchant Fleet, which he feared could one day become a rival to the Trade Federation, which would not work in accordance with the Grand Plan. However, as Prophraoh began silently buying into the company, infiltrating various droids in order to help his plan succeed, a defective droid managed to spread a personality virus, that soon infected all of the droids throughout the fleet, causing chaos and multiple lawsuits, which were all eventually correctly dismissed by a judge (the Baobab family had had no idea that a droid could cause so much damage, were not culpable, and no one had died), but the chaos that the personality virus had caused setback the Baobab fleet for a good few years, and focused more on trade, commerce and knowledge, unlike the Federation, and as a result, despite being vexed that he was foiled by sheer dumb luck and a couple of errant droids, Prophraoh turned his attention to other matters.

With Aegir still at university, a natural disaster on the Core world of Tepasi attracted the attention of the Sith. A series of earthquakes had shattered the cities of the main continent. Pondering if another Carosi like backlash would be beneficial to the overall Sith plan, he was uncommonly hesitant to get the Sith involved in any way. This however turned to his advantage when crime lord Tarzen Tagge, who had been scouted by the Sith networks for potential use later on, used his fleet of freighters to deliver aid to the stricken planet. A grateful populace offered their thanks to Tagge, which in turn led to the creation of the Tagge Company, which Prophraoh realised could one day be of use to the Sith further down the line, explaining why he was so hesitant to act before.

To Prophraoh’s consternation, a conflict arose on Mandalore, which he had known nothing about, though he took some solace in the fact that the Republic had been blindsided by it as much as he was. War had broke out over a narcolethe distillery between the Mandalorians and the Ithullans. Prophraoh quickly became involved, using his visions to help the Mandalorians pursue their foes and achieve their victory more quickly, believing that a more powerful Mandalorian sector could be useful to the Grand Plan. However, despite achieving victory over the Ithullans, the Mandalorians pursued their enemies back to their homeworld and attacked their cities, sending them plummeting into the depths of their homeworld, and nearly exterminating the entire species. The galaxy as a whole reacted with condemnation to these events, and once more cries to arm rose from the militants as the Republic and the Jedi were both criticised for failing to protect nearly an entire species from near extinction. Incensed by their needless cruelty, as it could have caused many problems for the Sith imperative, Prophraoh made sure to mention to Aegir during one of their sessions that they would one day ensure that the Mandalorians learned the error of their ways. However, to the relief of both Sith, despite the intergalactic outrage due to the actions of the Mandalorians, other than the militants and sentient rights supporters being a bit louder than usual, nothing happened, which also pleased Prophraoh as it showed how inefficient and corrupt the Republic was becoming, and was just the most grievous in an ever increasing trend of such incidents that were slowly chipping away at the foundation of the Republic.

Aegir continued both sides of his education, however as he struggled through his third and fourth years of university on Alderaan, Prophraoh began to ponder about whether or not his apprentice was the right choice, fearing that their long separation due to his apprentice’s other studies had made him a weaker candidate to succeed Prophraoh. Recalling his vision of two prospective apprentices battling before him, Prophraoh continued with his various schemes and continuing teaching Aegir from afar, while wondering if his apprentice was indeed the one he had foreseen. During his apprentice’s remaining time at university, Prophraoh used IgGN to capitalise on the supernova that had occurred in the Yablon system, once more accusing the Republic, through various channels, of not doing enough to help people threatened by disasters. Continuing in that vein, and also stimulating more trouble for the Republic throughout the years, Prophraoh was there and looked on proudly nonetheless as Aegir graduated as valedictorian, and the two then removed themselves from the wider galaxy for a year, giving into the dark side in all its savagery, only leaving for the Gathering ceremonies on Sojourn, and it was in that time that Prophraoh took Aegir truly in hand, training him more intensely than ever before in the knowledge and power of the Sith and the dark side, and instilling in him a deadly loyalty to the Rule of Two and to the advancement of the Sith imperative.

For years the two Sith continued in their plans, though Prophraoh still harboured doubts as to Aegir’s suitability to replace him when his apprentice deemed the time was right. Growing increasingly worried, he set his apprentice the task of disrupting Vortex’s joining of the Republic to see if he was indeed capable of what Prophraoh hoped. Aegir, by this time growing uneasy due to his master’s seeming distrust of him, departed for Vortex, and during that time, Prophraoh immersed himself in another Sith ritual in the fortress on Almas, trying to discern whether or not Aegir was the apprentice who would continue the Sith lineage. While doing so however, his ritual attracted the attention of locals on Almas, who alerted the Jedi Council to the fact that someone was using the Sith fortress, setting destiny into action.

Aegir, as instructed, caused problems for the accession of Vortex into the Republic, delaying the process and causing a minor civil war between two factions on the planet, which resulted in the Treaty of Vors being drawn up to bring an end to the conflict and complete Vortex’s joining of the Republic. Returning to Almas, he found his master deep within the fortress, and the dark side was pulsing with venom, and while Prophraoh was pleased that he had succeeded in his task, he now revealed that his destiny was at hand: he had to now prove that he was worthy of being his apprentice, as his vision was finally coming true, and his other potential apprentice was outside: the Jedi had discovered their presence within the fortress.

Having been alerted that someone was inside the fortress on Almas, which the Council had believed sealed off, they dispatched Eirrauc Jedi Master Qornah and his Zelosian apprentice, Kibh Jeen to the planet to investigate the unauthorised presence. Prophraoh was delighted, his apprentice had more than proved himself, but in addition, the other one he had foreseen in his vision was now outside, and he was struggling under the dark side potency of the fortress. As a shocked and furious Aegir gawped at his master, Prophraoh began to intrude into Jeen’s mind, speaking to him, goading him while his master edged forward hesitantly, feeling the rising power of the dark side and realising that something was amiss here on the planet. Prophraoh continued to assail Jeen’s mind and psyche, taunting him, tempting him, encouraging him to give into the anger within him, and despite Jeen’s attempts to ignore it, when an increasingly worried Qornah chided his apprentice to control his fear, fearing that some malevolent presence was encouraging his apprentice’s dark thoughts, Jeen lost all control and murdered his master. Prophraoh, incredibly pleased, then opened the door to the fortress, and invited Jeen inside.

Prophraoh sat on the throne of Darth Rivan as Kibh Jeen entered the fortress. Having murdered his master, Jeen was already falling totally to the dark side, and entering the throne room, Jeen was shocked to discover both Prophraoh and Aegir within. Prophraoh welcomed him, and revealed to him that they were the Dark Lords of the Sith, and explained the Rule of Two to him, despite Aegir’s protestations. Jeen, already mad with rage and grief, was horrified to learn the Sith still existed, and Aegir warned his master that this could backfire and reveal them to the Jedi, but the Duros dismissed his apprentice’s concerns. Tempting him with the offer of apprenticeship, and a chance to remake the galaxy, Prophraoh warned that Aegir was the only one who stood in Jeen’s way, and with that, Jeen attacked Aegir, who defended himself. His mastery of Shii-Cho defeated Jeen’s ability with Ataru, and he defeated the younger Jedi, defeating him and rendering him unconscious. Prophraoh applauded his apprentice, and told him that it was as he had originally foreseen, Darth Aegir was the apprentice he had foreseen. Aegir thanked his master, and then reversed his lightsaber and ignited it pointing backwards. A stunned Prophraoh barely had the chance to realise that his apprentice had just murdered him, as the lightsaber blazed up through his face and out the back of his head before the great seer dropped to the floor, dead, leaving Darth Aegir as the master, and with Kibh Jeen unconscious and awaiting the attentions of the Sith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did enjoy writing this section when I wrote it. Now there is only one section left, the Darkness Rises, detailing the Sith of the prequel era up until the Battle of Endor, and then finally the Epilogue which covers those adherents to the Rule of Two who come after
> 
> Please kudos and comment if you like!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first section, detailing the Birth of the Rule of Two, and lasting until the end of the period known as the Cleansing Feud  
> Started this some time ago, and it's hard going updating but it will be finished as I'm on the second last section at the moment
> 
> Please kudos and comment!


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